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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



Bleeding Armenia 

ITS 
HISTORY AND HORRORS 

Under the Curse of Islam 



Rev. A. W. WILLIAMS, of Chicago 

For twenty years a close student of Missionary work 
in the East — Syria, Turkey and Persia 




Dr. M. S. GABRIEL 

President of the Armenian Patriotic Alliance, New York 



CONTAINING ALSO THE VIEWS OF 

HON. WM. E. GLADSTONE 

ON THE TURKISH ATROCITIES 

THE MARQUIS OF SALISBURY 

ON ENGLAND'S ATTITUDE 

AND 

EDWARD A. FREEMAN, the Historian 

ON THE EASTERN QUESTION 



Fully and Appropriately Illustrated. 



PUBLISHERS' UNION 
1896 



l¥\W 



Copyright 1896 

BY 

A. W. Williams 



4. 




>5£ 



PREFACE. 

In offering to the public this volume on Bleeding 
Armenia under the Curse of Islam the writer does not 
seek to harrow the feelings of sensitive readers by the 
recital of blood-curdling outrages, tortures, murders 
and butcherings ; neither does he aim to discuss at any 
length the involved problems of the Eastern Question, 
but he does definitely seek to awaken interest in the 
history and fate of what may truly be called the Martyr 
Nation of the World. 

It is not the isolated fact that Armenia is now under- 
going a most terrible persecution, that fifty thousand 
or sixty thousand helpless men, women and children 
have already suffered death in every form which the 
most depraved nature, the most cruel instincts, the most 
bitter and fanatical hatred could devise, that so deeply 
arouses us; but the fact that for more than a thousand 
years this has been the bitter and bloody ^tory of her 
wrongs — this is what staggers us. 

That the reader may have some clearer conceptions 
of the present terrible situation in Armenia and of the 
causes which make her general condition one most 
deplorable to contemplate, its early history, civilization 
and conversion to Christianity is briefly sketched, and 
attention is called to the fact that its very geographical 
position has for many centuries made it the highwa} r 
for the contending armies of the East and West. 

Armenia has been the battle ground where diverse 

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6 PREFACE. 

systems of religion and civilization have fought for 
supremacy. Its fate has always been to suffer, which- 
ever power was for the time victorious. It has been 
sometimes ground to powder between the upper and 
nether millstone. 

The rise of that alien system of religion which is the 
most bitter and relentless persecutor of the Christian 
faith the world has ever seen is accurately sketched, 
and careful attention given to it because Christian peo- 
ple believe it to be true that the cause of the fiercest 
and most vindictive hatred of the Turk to Greek, Bul- 
garian or Armenian is primarily his loyalty to Moham- 
med and his hatred of Jesus as the Christ. 

It were not in the heart of humanity to kindle the 
passions into a flame so fierce as to consume every ele- 
ment of mere}'' and compassion, unless these were set on 
fire by fiendish fanaticism or religious bigotry. 

In this light these persecutions are but the irregular 
outbreak of that spirit of opposition which will never 
cease so long as Islam has power to draw the sword. 
From the hour that the Ottoman Turk was securely 
seated on that eastern throne of the Caesars, there never 
has been peace, and there never can be while he holds 
the keys to the gateway of nations. 

Without laborious disquisition, with only a sincere 
desire to let history tell its own story, some phases of 
the struggle for place, preeminence and power between 
England and Russia, which form the heart of the East- 
ern Question are also presented. 

No one can be in the slightest doubt as to which side 
of the Turkish-Armenian question the policy of En- 
gland leans. There is no question as to the fact that 
England has been the firmest friend to Turkey for 



fBEFACE. 7 

more than sixty years, and that the more she has feared 
the growing power of Russia the more resolutely she 
has stood by the Porte in spite of the atrocities which 
have marked the frequent persecutions of the Christian 
races under the sway of Islam. 

Her purely selfish and commercial " interests " have 
caused the English government to be deaf to the cry of 
the decimated Bulgarians, and of Armenians to-day. 
The part that England played in elaborating the great 
treaties of Paris and of Berlin which controlled the 
issues of the Crimean and the Russo-Turkish wars 
stamps the character of her interests in the affairs of 
Turkey. 

There is thus furnished in this historical data a broad 
ground on which public Opinion in this country may 
call upon Great Britain in this hour of remorseless 
cruelty that she shall fulfil the treaty obligations which 
she most solemnly and publicly accepted and assumed 
and demand of the Porte at the mouth of shotted guns 
if need be, that the rights of Christian Armenians shall 
be defended and maintained by the whole power of the 
Turkish Empire. 

The situation in Armenia is given with considerable 
fulness, though volumes could not contain a complete 
account of the sufferings that this long-doomed race 
has endured under the Curse of Islam. 

The position that our government should occupy is 
that of high moral equity, the insistance upon the 
preservation of common rights of humanity irrespective 
of race or creed. 

The immediate duty lying at our doors is to assist in 
relieving the distress even unto starvation, which hun- 
dreds of thousands of Armenians are now enduring. 



8 PREFACE. 

Many will perish before aid can reach them. What is 
to be done must be done quickly. 

This book while making little pretension to literary 
polish is the result of wide historical research and has 
been carefully written and edited, and is now cast upon 
the great tide of public opinion with the hope that it 
may stimulate permanent interest in the great problems 
which are at issue in the conflict between Christianity 
and Islam — that it may reach and move the springs of 
deepest sympathy for suffering Armenians; that it may 
rouse a more vigorous moral indignation against such 
crime and cruelty, and thereby assist in creating such a 
just and righteous public sentiment that our govern- 
ment may take such a stand as shall tell speedily for 
the bettering of the conditions of human existence in 
far off Armenia. 

Thus confiding in the kindly consideration of a gen- 
erous public, I send forth this book on the mission to 
which it is hereby dedicated, viz : — to plead the cause 
of Bleeding Armenia which is being done to death 
under the Curse of Islam. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

EAELY HISTORY OF ARMENIA. 
A Martyr Nation— Need of a Voice— Historical Annals at Nineveh— Ab- 
gar's Letter to Jesus of Nazareth— Acceptance of Christianity— Coun- 
cil of Nice— Persian Conquests— Bible Translated— Great Persecutions 
—Dying for the Faith— Magi Driven Out— Saracens in Armenia- 
Fearful Tortures— Burned Alive— Bogha the Tyrant— Sultan of Turkey 
—Islam or Death— Yussuf the Persian— Great Horrors Repeated- 
Starvation— Peace Returns 21 

CHAPTER II. 

THE RISE OF ISLAM. 
Arabia— Mecca— Idolatry— Mohammed's Birth— Carlyle on Islamism— The 
Heigira— Battle of Beder— Mecca Captured— Death of Mohammed- 
Golden Era of the Saracens— Khaled at Damascus— City Captured— 
Jerusalem Besieged— Capitulates— Persia Conquered— Egypt Won in a 
Day— Constantinople Besieged 44 

CHAPTER III. 
THE STORY OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. 
Origin— Jerusalem Captured by the Turks— Peter the Hermit— Pope 
Urban— Crusade of the Mob— Walter the Penniless— Battle of Nico- 
media— 300,000 Perished in all— Crusade of the Kings and Nobles- 
Godfrey of Bouillon— Europe Moves Westward— An tioch— Jerusalem 
Captured July 14th, 1099— Godfrey Elected King 72 

CHAPTER IV. 
THE GREAT TARTAR INVASIONS. 
The Turcomans— Seljuks— Persia Conquered— Armenia Wasted— 140,000 
Slain— Aui with 1,001 Churches Falls— Awful Slaughter— Asia Minor 
Ravaged— Emperor of Constantinople Defeated— Damascus Falls— 
Saladin— Jerusalem Capitulates— Silence on the Coast— Jenghiz Khan 
—Armenia in Great Distress— Turks in Europe— Tamerlane— Armenia 
again in Torture— Pyramids of Human Skulls— Death of Tamerlane 104 

CHAPTER V. 
THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 
Ottoman Empire Rising— Danger to Europe— Mohammed II. the Conqueror 
—Fortress Built at Galiipoli— Emperor Alarmed— Europe Indifferent- 
First Great Siege with Artillery— Seven Weeks Bombardment— Final 



(9) 



10 CONTENTS. 

Assault— 50,000 Ottomans Fall— Charge of the Janissaries— Constan- 
tine Died at His Post— Church of St. Sophia is turned into a Mosque- 
Islam sits on the Throne of Christianity 135 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE BULGARIAN MASSACKE. 
Four Centuries of Misrule— Chios, 40,000 Slain— Christians in Turkey Per- 
secuted— Russia Demands their Protection— France and England 
against Russia— Czar's Army Crosses into Moldavia— Sultan Declares 
War— Siege of Sebastopol— Treaty of Paris 1856— Turkish Loans— Re- 
volt in Servia— Andrassy Note— Reforms Promised— Bulgarian Massa- 
cres—England Horror Struck— Gladstone on the Massacres— 15,000 
Butchered— Russia Arms for the Deliverance of the Christians 159 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE RUSSO-TURK1SH WAR. 
War Declared— Crossing the Danube— Siege of Plevna— Skobeleff's Gallant 
Charge— Third Siege— Plevna Reduced and Surrenders— Alexander at 
the Danube— Shipka Pass— The Valley of Roses— Turkey Conquered— 
Adrianople— San Stefano— Berlin Treaty— Russia Robbed of her Vic- 
tories 185 

CHAPTER VIII. 
THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID. 
Questions of Policy— Palace Rule— Alarm of the Porte—Shrewd Diplomacy 
—Playing off the Powers— Balance of Power— Reforms Promised— 
Never Fulfilled 213 

CHAPTER IX. 

PROGRESS AND POWER OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN THE OTTOMAN 

EMPIRE. 
The First Chapter in Turkish Missions— Have Missions been a Failure- 
Modern Triumphs of the Gospel 250 

CHAPTER X. 
THE KURDS AND ARMENIANS. 
Territory — Origin — Occupation — Character — Agriculture — Robbers- 
Cruelty of Warfare —Language— Homes— Women— Ruined Castles- 
Churches 277 

CHAPTER XL 
THE REIGN OF TERROR— SASSOUN 303 

CHAPTER XII. 
THE REIGN OF TERROR-TREBIZCJND AND ERZEROUM 341 



CONTENTS. 11 

CHAPTER XIII. 
THE EE1GN OF TERROR-VAN AND MOUSH 360 

CHAPTER XIV. 
THE REIGN OF TERROR-HARPOOT AND ZEITOUN 383 

CHAPTER XV. 
RELIEF WORK IN ARMENIA. 
Mission Stations— The Christian Herald -Red Cross Society— Miss Clara 
Barton 400 

CHAPTER XVI. 
THE CURSE OF ISLAM. 
Despotic in Government— Intolerant in Religion— Evils of Polygamy- 
Degradation of Women— Ignorance— Cruelty of Officials— Extortion- 
Universal Distress— No Advance Possible— The Turk never Improves 
—Islam— Worse and Worse— Its Rule is against Humanity 423 

CHAPTER XVII. 
THE GREATEST CRIME OF THE CENTURY. 
England's Inactivity— Her Solemn Obligation— Treaty of San Stefano— 
Berlin— Convention with Turkey— Cyprus— Occupation of Egypt— Posi- 
tion of the English Government— Difficulties in the Way— But the Suf- 
fering Awful— Freeman— Gladstone 433 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
AMERICA'S DUTY AND PRIVILEGE. 
Possible Solution— Universal Arbitration— Constantinople a Free City- 
Europe Free— Armenia's Sorrows Healed— The Dawning of the Twen- 
tieth Century ; 470 

APPENDIX. 
DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIONS 495 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page 
Massacre of Armenians by Police, Softas and 

Kurds ....... Frontispiece. 

Great and Little Ararat from the Northeast . . 19 
Armenian Types and Costumes .... 38 

Monastic Rock Chambers at Gueremeh . . .55 
The Sultan Abdul Hamid in the Park of the Yildiz 

Palace 74 

Types of Softas .91 

" The Turks are upon us," A Panic in Stamboul . 110 
The New Grand Vizier on His Way to the Sublime 

Porte 127 

Explaining the Inflammatory Placards . . . 146 
Taking Armenian Prisoners to the Grand Zaptie 

Prison . . . . . . . .163 

British Cabinet Debating the Armenian Question . 182 
The British Mediterranean Fleet .... 199 

Types and Costumes. — Kurdish Gentlemen . . 218 
A Common Scene in the Streets of Erzeroum . 235 

Armenian Peasant Women Weaving Turkish Carpets, 254 
Armenian Peasants Fleeing to Russia . . . 271 
Armenian Women, Province of Van . . . 290 
Armenian Mountaineer of Shadokh .... 307 

Grand Mosque and Interior of Urfah . , . 324 
Passage Boat on the Arras ..... 343 

Arresting the Murderers of Armenians . . . 362 
Sketches of Armenia and Kurdestan .... 379 

(13) 



14 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Refugees and Policemen at an Armenian Church 

A Prayer for Revenge 

Massacre of Armenians at Erzeroum 

Burying the Bodies After the Massacre at Erzeroum 

A Grim Corner of the Cemetery, Erzeroum 

The Prison at Erzeroum 

Trebizond 

Principal Street and Bazaars of Erzeroum . 
Town and Citadel of Van .... 

Armenian Refugees at the Labor Bureau at Van 

MAPS. 

Map of Turkey in Asia ..... 
Map of Armenia ....... 



PAGE 

398 
415 
422 
431 
438 
444 
453 
459 
466 
475 



284-285 
. 321 



INTRODUCTION. 



At no time of the world's history have there ever 
been two months so rich in grand tragedy as the 
Armenian period of November and December, 1895. 
It is not the enormous number of the killed nor the 
frightful suffering of the survivors that give this 
period its unique character, but the fact that the great 
majority of the 75,000 or more of the massacred 
Christians had a free choice to make between life and 
death, and they chose death. Civilized humanity is 
bound to take a supreme interest in the action of 
those heroes and heroines who sacrificed all the 
interests of existence to their moral ideal of life, — 
in those women who, in order to escape from the out- 
rage of a bestial soldiery, threw themselves into the 
river Euphrates and were drowned, — in those virgins 
who, captured by the brutal Moslems, received 
twenty, thirty sword cuts in defending their honor, — 
in those men who, when threatened with instant death 
if they would not embrace Islam, answered, ' ' we are 
ready to be immolated for the love of Christ, ' ' and 
they were slaughtered like sheep. The historian and 
the dramatic writer, the poet and the painter will soon 
follow the diplomatist and the journalist to take up the 
matter, and the Christian peoples of all lands will 
continue to receive now a thrill of pious admiration, 
now a tremendous shock at the recital of these events. 

In fact, the Armenian occurrences have two sides, 
one glorious, and one of hellish darkness. They 
bring out in the most striking fashion the infernal 
genius of the Mahommedan religion. The Moslems, 

15 



1 6 INTRODUCTION. 

high and low, exhibited such foul sensuality, such 
satanic cruelty and such delight in ferocity of which 
even the savages are incapable. And these qualities 
are precisely those which Mahommedanism cultivates. 

The Armenian crisis served also as a test to bring 
out the actual degree of European morality. Alas ! 
who would have believed a year ago that the Christian 
powers of Europe would permit the Turk to attempt 
before their eyes the extermination of a Christian 
nation and church by wholesale massacre and forced 
conversions? Such is, nevertheless, the dreadful 
revelation of the year. They did not prevent the 
most colossal crime of the century, nor did they 
punish the criminal who by their mercy alone had the 
power of committing such a crime ; moreover, they 
had the front, at least some of them, to declare that, 
for reasons of high diplomacy, they were ready to 
support the authority of the monstrous criminal over 
his victims. 

What makes this infamous course of the Christian 
governments the more ominous, is the fact that the 
Christian peoples and churches did not seem to be 
shocked. They stifled their indignation and swal- 
lowed their own protests if they felt or uttered any, 
and we see no nation whatever boiling with the sacred 
rage of revolting conscience. 

The British government and press have tried hard 
to show that England has done all she could in order 
to protect the Armenians. Russia has yet her national 
conscience very imperfectly developed, Germany's 
conscience is nearly dead under the curse of her suc- 
cess against France. It is only the government of 
Great Britain that feels the obligation of executing 
itself. But its failure in protecting Armenia is not 
merely the forced consequence of the course of the 
other powers in the matter, as it would like to make 
the public believe. England had sinned against 
Armenia during all the long period of 1 8 years before 
the matters came to a crisis. She had been, in 1878, 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

the champion of the Turk against Russia, and in 
order to justify her support of a Moslem power which 
had been the curse of its Christian subjects, Great 
Britain pledged herself by the Cyprus Convention to 
protect the Christians against Turkish misrule as she 
would protect Turkish territory against Russian 
aggression. 

Did England fulfill her solemn obligation toward 
Armenia? No ! The British consuls in Armenia 
did report to the government that the Turkish 
authorities and Kurdish beys and Hamidieh troops 
continued to oppress the Armenians just as before, 
nay, worse than before, — that their worthiest leaders, 
bishops, professors, influential men were being exiled, 
the benevolent associations scattered, the useful books 
censured, the peasantry ground to dust, and hundreds 
of innocent men flung into prison and tortured — but 
the British Government did not move . 

L,et there be no misunderstanding as to my mean- 
ing. I do not mean England remained absolutely 
indifferent, but she never acted in time, and with 
adequate energy. She remained always behind the 
times. She brought to bear upon the Sultan a 
pressure of 1,000 tons when a weight of 10,000 was 
required, and used 10,000 when 100,000 was needed, 
with the result that Abd-ul-Hamid, instead of coming 
to his senses, grew bolder after each successful 
resistance. With trifling concessions he pushed his 
way and had the Kurdish brigands organized into 
imperial troops, acquitted Moossa Beg, enjoyed the 
Erzeroum massacre, undertook the more important 
massacre of Sassoon, and after all, the crowning 
massacres of 1895. Had England insisted upon 
Moossa Beg's being hung, the Erzeroum slaughter 
would not have been allowed, and if the leaders of the 
Erzeroum carnage at least were punished, the greater 
devastation of the Sassoon province would have been 
prevented. Evidently it was much easier for the 
British government to successfully coerce the Sultan 



18 INTRODUCTION. 

for the exemplary punishment of the first criminals 
than later to check the greater tides of sweeping evils. 
To judge aright, we must consider the whole course 
of the British in the matter and not merely what 
happened at the critical moment when the task was 
so much harder. And even then, namely in October 
last, did England show herself equal to the require- 
ments of the crisis? Whatever L,ord Salisbury and 
his party organs may say, he must have many times 
since avowed to himself that he did not act then as he 
could and ought to. He lacked courage and now the 
prestige of Great Britain has sunk to a miserably low 
degree in the Orient. 

For the present the Sultan reigns in Constantinople 
and the Czar governs. The situation is evidently an 
unsettled one, as Hamid's suicidal policy has pros- 
trated the whole country, and a radical change is to 
come in the near future. The final doom of the Otto- 
man Empire can not delay much longer. The world 
expects to see some sudden developments in the affairs 
of the East. The fate of agonizing Armenia will be 
decided, and the relations of the Christian with the 
Moslem world will enter on a new phase. 

This book therefore, is devoted to "Bleeding 
Armenia," Under the Rule of Islam ; will touch 
problems of the highest importance and command 
general interest. It can not give a definite solution 
to the multitudinous questions raised by the condition 
of Armenia, but will contribute to bring them to 
public comprehension and right judgment. 

M. S. Gabriel. 



BLEEDING ARMENIA. 



CHAPTER I, 

EARLY HISTORY OF ARMENIA. 

"Gather you, gather you angels of God 
Chivalry, Justice and Truth : 
Come, for the earth has grown cursed and old 
Come down and renew us her youth ! 
Freedom, self-sacrifice, mercy and love, 
Haste to the battlefield, stoop from above 
To the Day of the Lord at Hand." 

" Who would sit down and sigh for a lost age of gold 
While the Lord of all ages is here ? 
True hearts will leap up at the trumpet of God, 
And those who can suffer can dare- 
Each past age of gold was an iron age too, 
And the meanest of saints may find work to do 
In the Day of the Lord at Hand." 

KlNGSLEY. 

The history of Armenia is a chapter of horrors un- 
equalled by the history of any other nation under the 
sun. The record should arouse interest in the fate of 
this ancient and most remarkable people, who have 
suffered the most cruel outrages — the victims of the 
most horrible crimes that have ever stained the pages 
of history with tears and blood. As we read the heart 
rending story of their awful fate, we can scarcely wonder 
that a heartbroken mother, as she gazed on the lifeless 

(21) 



22 EARLY HISTORY OF ARMENIA. 

form of a beloved daughter whom she had sought in 
vain to preserve from a ruffian band of Turks, should 
cry out in the frenzy of her grief that God himself had 
gone mad, and that maniacs and demons incarnate were 
stalking through the earth. 

Where is there a voice with passion and fire enough 
in it to arouse the hearts of Christian America to de- 
mand, in the name of a common humanity, that the 
massacres and outrages of the fierce and fanatical 
Turks shall cease? In what nobler cause did ever 
Christian knight draw sword, or a nation ever spend 
treasure and blood. 

Ours is not the terrible responsibility of the British 
nation which has suffered commercial considerations to 
outweigh frenzied appeals for justice and toleration, 
but it is a weight of shame that will be equally hard to 
bear in the Day of the Lord, if we, the mightiest 
Christian nation on the face of the globe, in the darkest 
night of religious persecution shall put forth no effective 
hand to deliver this most ancient Christian race from 
the clutch of fiendish fanaticism. 

The cause of Armenia is founded on facts which ex- 
alt this people to the loftiest heights of martyrdom and 
have made them literally for eighteen centuries " The 
Blazing Torch of Asia." Her tortures will not cease 
until the mailed hand of Christendom shall smite into 
the dust the power of the Prophet. The blood of prob- 
ably a million martyrs to Christianity has drenched the 
soil of Armenia. Its fair proportions have been cur- 
tailed by conqueror after conqueror, its fields pillaged, 
its homes devastated and at no time has this devoted 
nation been without the presence of the sword sus- 
pended by the single hair. Embrace the creed of Is- 



EARLY HISTORY OF ARMENIA. 23 

lam, or the scimiter of the fanatic Moslem severs the 
hair which separates an existence of fear from the mar- 
tyr's crown, is forever in the thoughts of every Ar- 
menian. 

The historians of this people of Armenia claim for 
them a very ancient heritage — a career which though 
narrow, is one of thrilling interest. 

About the year 150 B. C, by the might of conquest 
a Parthian King came to the throne of Armenia ; and 
wishing to know something of the origin of the race and 
of the history of the country, and not finding anything 
satisfactory in Armenia, he sent the most learned man 
in all bis dominions to consult the old Chaldean manu- 
scripts and tablets that were to be found in the Royal 
Archives of Nineveh. Every facility was afforded him 
in his search, and among the archives he found a manu- 
script written in the Greek characters with this label : 
" This book containing the annals of ancient history 
was translated from Chaldean into Greek by order of 
Alexander the Great." He extracted from that the 
history of Armenia as written and continuing it down 
to his own times presented it to the King, who ordered 
it preserved with great care in his treasury. 

The principal sources of their national history rests 
upon the works of a celebrated Armenian writer of the 
fifth centurjr, who claims to have derived his information 
from the above mentioned manuscript. They derive 
their parentage from Gomer, the son of Japhet, or 
rather from Haig, a grandson of Gomer, who moving 
northward from the plains of Shinar, settled with his 
families and followers in the country round about Ararat. 
This interesting story, which touches in many points 
the authentic histories of Nineveh and Babylon, cannot 



24 EARLY HISTORY OF ARMENIA. 

here be told ; but we hastily sketch the succeeding 
eras in the ever fateful history of this primitive race of 
people. 

The grandson of the founder of this Parthian race of 
kings, Ardashes I., brought all Persia under his sway, 
and then turned westward with an army so vast he did 
not know their number. He subdued the whole of 
Asia Minor — passed the Hellespont, conquered Thrace 
and Greece, destroying many cities. Returning to 
Armenia, he planned another expedition into Persia in 
which he was defeated, wounded, and in dying, ex- 
claimed, " Alas, how transient and unsatisfactory is 
glory." 

A little later an immense army of allied Persians and 
Armenians invade Palestine and Phenicia, the Roman 
armies being unable to stop their progress. For an 
immense bribe of one thousand talents of gold, Antigo- 
nus secures their assistance in dethroning Hyrcanus 
and establishes himself upon the throne of Jerusalem. 

In the second year of Abgar (or Agbarus) (B. C. 3,) 
a decree was issued by Augustus that all the kingdoms 
acknowledging the Roman dominion should be taxed, 
and that statues of himself should be erected in the re- 
ligious temples of every nation. Herod, King of the 
Jews, puffed up with pride, also sent statues of himself 
to be placed near those of Augustus. Abgar refusing 
to comply with this request, Herod sent a mighty force 
against him into Armenia, but the invaders were met 
and defeated with great loss. Abgar now determined 
to shake off the Roman yoke, and built the cit}^ of 
Edessa and strongly fortified it. Accused to Tiberius, 
the succeeding Emperor, of inciting the Persians to re- 
bellion, he sent messengers to justify himself. 



EAfeLY HISTORY OF ARMENIA. 25 

During their stay in Palestine they heard all the 
wonders which were related to them of the extraordi- 
nary power of Christ. To gratify their curiosity they 
went to Jerusalem, witnessed the miracles performed 
by our Lord, and then returned to Armenia. Abgar, 
listening to their accounts, became satisfied that Jesus 
was the Son of God, and immediately sent back his 
messengers to Jerusalem with a letter to Christ in 
which acknowledging Him to be the true and only Son 
of God, he says : " Therefore, now I have written and 
besought Thee to visit me, and to heal the disease with 
which I am afflicted. I have also heard that the Jews 
murmur against Thee and are plotting tu injure Thee ; 
I have, however, a very small but noble state which is 
sufficient for us both." 

The authenticity of this letter and the answer which 
Jesus sent in reply has been questioned: but truth is 
often stranger than fiction. Eusebius (Ecc'l Hist. Bk. 
I., chap. 13), declares that in the public registers of the 
city of Edessa these letters and records of the transac- 
tions following them were still to be found in his day. 

The story is that St. Thomas, directed by our Lord, 
wrote a reply to this letter, promising to send to them 
an apostle after His resurrection. Accordingly Thad- 
deus was afterwards sent to Edessa, where King Abgar 
was instructed and baptized. 

Many believed and were baptized. So gladly was 
the truth received, that tradition says that Bartholomew 
and Jude also were sent into Armenia, but later rulers 
apostatizing from the faith, began a fierce persecution. 
Bartholomew was crucified, the others also suffered 
martyrdom with multitudes of their disciples. 

Thus early was the infant church of Armenia bap 



26 EARLY HISTORY OF ARMENIA. 

tized iii its own blood, and for scarcely a generation 
has its blood ever ceased to flow. It is the martyr 
church and race of Christendom. Its persecutors 
have literally bathed themselves in the blood of the 
slain. 

Witness the horrible barbarity of a Persian Governor 
of Armenia in 1038, who, upon the capture of a city 
which had dared to rebel against their oppressors, was 
so wild with rage that he ordered all the Greek and 
Armenian captives to be slain ; and when a trench that 
had been dag was filled with the blood of his butchered 
victims he satiated his revenge by bathing in it. 

In 286 A. D., there was a revival of Christianity in 
Armenia. Diocletian, Emperor of Rome, restored Tir- 
idates to his throne, driving out the Persian usurper. 
With Tiridates there came from Rome Gregory the 
Illuminator. By his preaching of the Gospel the whole 
nation was converted to Christianity ; and in the year 
302 A. D., on the occasion of his going to Cesarea 
Gregory was consecrated Archbishop of Armenia by 
Leontius the Metropolitan. Later, when the news 
reached Armenia that the Emperor Constantine was a 
convert, Tiridates and St. Gregory undertook the jour- 
ney to Rome, when an alliance was solemnly agreed 
upon between the two nations. At the Council of 
Nice, A. D. 325, the church of Armenia was repre- 
sented by bishops who brought back with them the 
Creed of the Fathers. Thus the true light began to 
shine in fuller splendor in the midst of Cimmerian 
darkness. 

The Armenians seem to have been born for sorrow. 
Their provinces were the highways of hostile nations. 
The armies of Rome and of Persia passing through al- 



EARLY HISTORY OF ARMENIA. 27 

ways carried desolation and ruin with them. Com- 
pelled to yield to the demands of one conquering army, 
they became objects of vengeance to the other when 
the former had withdrawn. In the year 369, Shabuh, 
King of Persia, sent a large army against Arshag of 
Armenia, who, being caught in a fortress which could 
not stand a siege, determined to deliver himself to 
the Persian general with a view of pleading his cause 
before the king. 

Upon his arrival in Persia a palace was given him for 
his residence and that of his court. But Shabuh im- 
mediately compelled him to write to his Queen to join 
him in Persia; an order was also sent to the chiefs and 
nobles to proceed with their Queen to the Persian cap- 
ital. 

The Armenian chiefs, alarmed at the order, begged 
to be excused, but the King being inexorable, they at- 
tacked the troops he had sent for their escort, put 
them to flight, and then fled into distant provinces. 
The Queen also taking the treasures of the royal palace 
retired to a strong fortress and wrote to Bab, a royal 
prince held as hostage at Constantinople, to raise an 
army of Greeks and hasten to the rescue of his father. 

Shabuh angry at these events caused Arshag to be 
loaded with chains and cast into the castle of Oblivion, 
where, once immured, no one was ever heard of again. 

The King of Persia sent a powerful army against the 
Queen headed by two apostate Armenians. They found 
the country in a most deplorable condition and at once 
laid siege to the fortress in which the Queen had sought 
safety. The siege became a blockade, until despairing 
of relief the inhabitants opened the gates and surren- 
dered. The castle was plundered with horrible atroci- 



28 EARLY HISTORY OF ARMENIA. 

ties, while the Queen and captives who were spared 
were taken to Persia and by various and satanic meth- 
ods of torture compelled to abjure their faith. Arshag, 
the imprisoned King, finding his bondage hopeless, 
driven to despair, fell on his sword and expired, having 
reigned eighteen years. 

Shabuh sent Merujan the apostate again into Arme- 
nia with a large army and a company of magi, promis- 
ing him the sovereignty of the country if he succeeded 
in subduing the chiefs and in forcing the Armenians to 
embrace the Persian religion. A most dreadful perse- 
cution followed, priests and bishops and people were 
exiled, and multitudes put to death. All the books 
found in the country written in Greek characters were 
destroyed, and an order issued that no Armenian should 
learn that tongue, and that thenceforth all writings 
must be in the Persian characters. The magi and the 
executioners were distributed among the towns and 
villages, the miserable inhabitants having only the alter- 
native of abjuring their religion or meeting instant death. 

This reads like a chapter of recent horrors. Finally 
Eastern Armenia became a province of Persia and after 
the death of Shabuh enjoyed a little tranquillity. At 
this time a certain Christian, Mesrob b} r name, became 
famous for sanctity and wisdom. He invented an Ar- 
menian alphabet, in the year 406. Learning began to 
flourish. Many schools were founded, and the Armenian 
youth were taught their language in their own alphabet. 
The Persian division of Armenia became celebrated 
throughout the East for its knowledge. The Old Testa- 
ment was translated into Armenian from the Syriac, 
the New Testament having already been translated by 
St. Mesrob. 



EARLY HISTORY OF ARMENIA. 29 

A few years later, A. D. 428, the dominion of the 
Arsacides ceased forever, after having lasted for nearly 
six hundred years : and Armenia came under the do- 
minion of Persia and was ruled by Prefects for four 
hundred and fifty-six years. 

In A. D. 441 Hazguerd (Yezdiged) II. came to the 
throne of Persia and meditated the forcible conversion 
of all Armenia to the worship of the sun (fire worship) 
and the doctrines of Zoroaster. He exhorted the chiefs 
and people to embrace the doctrine of the magi, but 
without effect. He sent officers to collect most ex- 
tortionate taxes with power to torture at discretion. 
Many chiefs and nobles and multitudes of people were 
tortured, thrown into dungeons, suffered most terrible 
forms of martyrdom, yet remained steadfast in faith. 
Some few yielded under the fierceness of persecution 
and kissed their hands to the sun — but only a few. 

Pleading in vain for mercy, they resolved to sell their 
lives as dearly as possible. The bishops and chiefs 
called a great assembly where they swore to fight for 
the honor and in defence of the Holy Church. They 
gathered an army of one hundred thousand men and 
attacked all the Persians in the kingdom. The magi 
were put to death and their temples were demolished. 
Fresh armies were poured in from Persia and the car- 
nage increased. Fire worship was reestablished, the 
former tragedies of blood and torture were recnacted, 
many churches were demolished, the priests dying 
under most excruciating torture. Is it the fifth cen- 
tury or the nineteenth that we are describing? 

In A. D. 451, Hazguerd ordered his generals to pro- 
ceed into Armenia with a large army and put the entire 
Christian population to the sword. They were opposed 



80 EARLY HISTORY OF ARMENIA. 

by Vartan, who by sending heralds throughout the 
country, warned the inhabitants of the threatened doom 
and gathered an army of sixty-six thousand determined 
men. The two armies faced each other late in the 
day with only a river between. That night Vartan, 
with priests and bishops, passed through the army ex- 
horting them to fight manfully against the invaders. 
The Armenians all received the sacrament that night, 
and inflamed with love of Christ and country, were 
ready to do and die. 

On the following day which was the 2d of June the 
Armenians, eager to shed their blood for their faith, 
crossed the river and commenced the attack. 

At first they were successful and cut down the 
Persians with great slaughter. But there was treason 
in their ranks ; and in the midst of the battle five 
thousand men drew off and joined their enemies. The 
fortunes of the day changed and the Armenians were 
routed. The glorious Vartan and eight allied chiefs 
and two hundred and eighty-six warriors were left on 
the field. Hundreds of wounded were taken prisoners 
and immediately put to death. 

These outrages so exasperated the Armenians that 
again they rallied, defeated their enemies and pursuing 
them into Persian territory ravaged the country, burn- 
ing towns and villages. The Persian King now offered 
terms of peace, promising to forbear persecuting them 
on account of their religious faith ; and for a time the 
Avar ceased. But he did not deliver up his prisoners. 
Many bishops and priests suffered martyrdom in 454 ■, 
not until 456 did the chiefs and nobles, who had been 
languishing in prison for years rather than deny their 
faith, regain their freedom and return into Armenia. 



EARLY HISTORY OF ARMENIA. 31 

From the year 600 no Persian Prefect was ever again 
sent into Armenia, that office being held by men of 
their own race; but on the West, however, a power 
was rising up that would prove a fearful scourge, a re- 
lentless and most bitter persecutor — The Saracenic 
Power. 

the saracens in armenia. 

About the year 636 Armenia was invaded by the 
Saracens. This was the beginning of the most unhappy 
era in the annals of Armenia. The whole country was 
shortly plunged into ruin and desolation. 

Nothing at first could withstand the onslaught of 
these fierce warriors, Saracens, Infidels, who knew no 
word for mercy and regarded all women as but slaves 
to their worse than bestial passions. 

After a fierce battle in which the Armenians were 
defeated with great slaughter the whole country was 
ablaze with conflagrations. A city captured after a 
siege of months was taken by storm. The most dread- 
ful havoc ensued, twelve thousand inhabitants were 
massacred, churches, palaces pillaged and burned and 
thirty-five thousand citizens carried into captivity. 

These were but the beginning of sorrows and hor- 
rors. Invasion after invasion followed until at last 
peace was bought at the cost of an immense } 7 early 
tribute which impoverished the whole people. 

Justinian, the Greek Emperor, disregarding all ties 
of a common faith and heedless of the common danger 
from the rising power, demanded that they should re- 
nounce obedience to the Saracens and return to his 
authority. They replied: " How often have we been 
subject to the rule of Greeks, yet how little assistance 



82 EAfcLY fciSTORY OF ARMENIA. 

have they rendered us in time of our distress. * * * 
Should we at present submit ourselves to your power, 
our kingdom would be exposed to invasion, we should 
be delivered up to the sword and our habitations to fire 
and pillage. * * * We beseech you, therefore to let us 
remain under the dominion of our present masters by 
which alone our safety and the safety of our nation can 
be secured." 

The Emperor enraged at this humble pleading, sent 
an army to invade Armenia. Twenty-five provinces 
were almost depopulated by its ravages and thousands 
were carried away and sold as slaves in foreign lands. 
The following year another army of forty thousand 
men came to ravage the remaining territory. The na- 
tion was driven to madness and despair b}^ the devasta- 
tions committed. But as if all the vials of wrath and 
the horrors of hell were to be let loose at once, the 
Saracens, believing they had returned to the subjection 
of the Greeks, again invaded Armenia. They destroyed 
every town and village on their line of march, and 
carried away vast multitudes of captives. 

Again they returned with greater numbers than be- 
fore. Cities, towns, villages, fortresses, were razed to 
the ground, garrisons and people either butchered or 
carried away captive. What could the poor Armenians 
do but yield up their country to the power and govern- 
ment of the Saracens ? 

Again the Greeks returned with a large army, and 
the weakened, disheartened, impoverished people could 
only bow in subjection. The emperor taking hostages 
from among the most distinguished chiefs returned to 
Constantinople, leaving behind an army of thirty thou- 
sand men to protect his vassals. At the expiration of 



EARLY HISTORY OF ARMENIA. 33 

three years all these had departed and the country lay 
open to the inroads of their fiercest enemies. 

The Saracens soon reestablished their power ; the 
governors being appointed from Damascus. To punish 
the Armenians for what they termed their rebellion, 
many of the nobility were decoyed into churches which 
were then set on fire and the poor Armenians were 
burnt alive. Their property was then confiscated, their 
families siezed and put to death with fiendish cruelty 
on account of their religious faith. 

This reads like a chapter of living horrors: for the 
photographs of to-day are only those of yesterday re- 
touched with human blood. 

The governors everywhere oppressed the Armenians 
with little intermission, levying heavy taxes and inflict- 
ing extortionate fines for their own private use. When 
the Saracens began the building of Bagdad, the tribute 
was mercilessly increased. The greatest distress pre- 
vailed, the evil became intolerable, a dreadful dearth 
occurred in their harvests because of the furious hail- 
storms that swept over wide regions of country. 
Clouds of locusts devoured what the hail had spared 
and famine and misery untold desolated the land. 

BOGHA THE TYRANT. 

It was in the year 850 that the most awful calami- 
ties fell upon this devoted race. Bogha the Tyrant, 
marched with a vast army to the utter ruin of Ar- 
menia. Everywhere terror and consternation prevailed 
as at their first entrance into the upper valleys, they 
cut off utterly every living soul they found. The Ar- 
menians who inhabited the summits of the mountains, 
beholding the awful massacres, rushed down in great 



34 EARLY HISTORY.' OF ARMENIA. 

numbers to attack their enemies, but the Saracens tak- 
ing possession of all the passes cut off their retreat. A 
great many were killed, and many more were taken 
alive. These were bound with ropes and dragged into 
the presence of the governor. Bogha selected the fin- 
est looking men and put them in confinement, intend- 
ing to force them to renounce their religion ; the re- 
mainder he ordered slain before his eyes. 

This horrible carnage was repeated in several prov- 
inces. One of the most famous chiefs sought to make 
his peace with costly gifts, but was seized with his 
wife and children and sent in chains to Bagdad. Then 
Bogha marched his army into the province of Vas- 
buragan with orders to seize and bind all who were 
able to carry arms. Separating the finest men again 
for confinement and torture, the others were inexorably 
consigned to death. The slaughter was immense, as 
the records state, human blood fertilized the land, and 
the valleys were choked up with the bodies of former 
inhabitants. Those whom he had spared resolutely re- 
fusing to deny their faith were tortured with fiendish 
ingenuity until death relieved them of their sufferings. 

In the extremity of their anguish they cried out : 
" How long O Lord ? How Long ? " A thousand years 
has brought no adequate repl}\ You recall the excla- 
mation of Sojourner Truth's humble piety when Fred- 
erick Douglas was fiercely lamenting the death of 
Abraham Lincoln, "Frederick, is God dead?" and we 
wonder how the faith of the harried Armenians lived 
when to swear by Mohammed would have delivered 
them from their horrible sufferings. 

Is t lie heart of this nation dead ? Are we so taken 
up with the greed for gold, the establishment of com- 



EARLY HISTORY OF ARMENIA. 35 

merce, the extension of trade, the rivalries of political 
ambitions, that the bleeding arms of the Armenians are 
still stretched forth in vain, and their cries drowned by 
the din of business or the revels of pleasure. 

But no deliverer was nigh. The mountains and the 
rocks reechoed in vain their cries for help, their ap- 
peals for mercy. 

Bogha was drunk with blood. The nation must 
perish. Province after province was swept of its cities, 
many thousands slain and massacred ; and still the 
nobles and the -chief men were spared for torture. 
Many were tortured to such an extent that scarcely a 
feature remained by which to distinguish them. When 
every art, device and glittering promise had failed to 
induce them to apostatize, and the cruel ingenuity of 
their tormentors could devise no more appalling agony, 
they were crucified. 

The persecutions lasted almost without intermission 
for five years till the earth itself was sickened with the 
blood of innocent men. When almost the whole land 
lay desolate and many provinces were more like 
slaughterhouses than inhabited countries, Bogha gath- 
ered multitudes of captives for slavery, and the noblest, 
bravest men for sacrifice, and set out for Bagdad. In 
the presence of the Caliph and the chief and flower of 
Saracenic nobility, the most horrible scenes were re- 
enacted in the capital of the Saracens. This only now 
remains for the Sultan of Turkey, the head of the Mo- 
hammedan religion to do, to equal in barbarity the 
deeds of Bogha the tyrant ; and perhaps this alone will 
rouse all Christendom, viz : Drive the miserable and 
starving remnants left in his eastern provinces in 
chains to Constantinople and repeat in the eyes of all 



36 EARLY HISTORY OF ARMENIA. 

Europe the awful crimes with which in the blazing 
light of modern civilization he has darkened the face of 
all the East. 

The Caliph gave these hapless victims but one alter- 
native — the only alternative Islam ever offers when it 
has the power, viz : either to renounce Christianity 
and embrace Islamism, or be put to torture and to 
death. We shall learn what torture is when we come 
to rehearse in your tingling ears the devilish cruelties 
under which upwards of sixty thousand Armenians 
have perished within the last few months. . 

Many outwardly renounced Christianity as the sight 
of the prolonged tortures lacerated their hearts and 
smote them with weakness. Many others, more firm, 
gloriously died in defence and confirmation of their 
faith. 

THE THIRD ARMENIAN DYNASTY. (A. D. 856.) 

The pressure on the reader's sympathy will be re- 
lieved by the portrayal of a brief reign of peace in 
Armenia, but righteous indignation will not be 
lessened. 

Ashod I., the son of Sumpad, the Confessor who died 
in chains at Bagdad, gathered the remains of his tribe 
together, after the retirement of Bogha, the Tyrant, 
and by his courage, wisdom and humanity became 
greatly esteemed. The Caliph of Bagdad in an hour of 
strange friendliness conferred on him the government 
of Armenia. 

He sent him also a special messenger, bearing rich 
presents and splendid official robes, directing him to in- 
vest Ashod with the supreme power. 

His first effort was to restore confidence and improve 






**%am. 







ARMENIAN TYPES AND COSTUMES. 



EARLY HISTOEY OF ARMENIA. 89 

the condition of the country, to the great satisfaction 
of all the Armenians. George II., Pontiff, and all the 
chiefs united in drawing up a petition to the Caliph 
soliciting him to bestow a crown upon Ashod, promis- 
ing at the same time not to falter in their allegiance to 
the authority of Bagdad. To the great joy of all 
Armenians, their prayer was heard and a crown of 
royalty was sent. Basilius, the Emperor of Constanti- 
nople, who was an Armenian of the family of the 
Arsacids also sent him a magnificent crown. Thus 
patronized by two emperors, Ashod ascended with 
great splendor the throne of Armenia. All the ancient 
royal customs were restored and Armenia again be- 
came a great and flourishing country. 

Armenia being now at peace, Ashod set out to visit 
Western Armenia, and thence he passed on to Constan- 
tinople to visit Emperor Leo, son of Basilius. His re- 
ception was magnificent. On his returning he fell sick 
— his malady increasing he sent for George, the Pontiff, 
and received the sacrament, after which he appointed 
that large sums should be distributed to the poor at the 
church doors and to hospitals, convents and alms- 
houses. He died in his seventy-first year, having gov- 
erned Armenia thirty-one years, viz : Twenty-six as 
governor and five as king. He was buried with all the 
royal magnificence due to an eastern Monarch. 

In 892 the Caliph confirmed the crown to Sumpad, 
eldest son of Ashod and the ceremony of coronation 
was again performed. The treaty of his father was re- 
newed with the Emperor of Constantinople, but his 
reign proved to be a stormy one through successive 
invasions of the Persians. At length he was enticed 
into the power of Yussuf, the Persian, bound in 
3 



40 EARLY HISTORY OF ARMENIA. 

chains and cast into a dark dungeon for a year. From 
prison he was taken before the walls of a castle which 
was being besieged. Furious with rage because of the 
continued resistance, Yussuf caused the most horri- 
ble barbarities to be executed upon the unfortunate 
Sumpad in sight of the beleaguered Armenians. The 
torture was renewed daily to cause him to deny Christ. 
Then hourly until death released his unshaken spirit. 

Ashod II., surnamed the Iron-hearted, famed for 
bravery and extraordinary strength, son of Sumpad, 
now gathered a small body of six hundred men like 
himself and began to drive out the Persians. Soon he 
cleared the country of them and in gratitude the Ar- 
menians placed him on the throne. But many chiefs 
refused him their allegiance. They were a restless, 
jealous set of nobles, and these quarrels among them- 
selves are by all their historians denounced as the chief 
source of their national weakness. 

Nobles and peasants rose in rebellion, and Yussuf 
taking advantage of the anarchy again brought upon 
them his fiercest bands. 

The former cruelties, and persecutions and barbari- 
ties were repeated. Aged men and women were tied 
together and then cut to pieces, babes were tossed in 
the air to be caught on the points of the spears or cut 
in twain with their swords, or dashed to the ground in 
the presence of their distracted and dishonored mothers. 

Religious fanaticism was burning like the fires of 
hell in the breast of Yussuf and yet these Armenians 
though ready to fight against each other would die the 
death of martyrs rather than deny their Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ. 

Greater horrors followed on the devastation of their 



EARLY HISTORY OF ARMENIA. 41 

fields. Sore and dreadful famine began its cruel work. 
Thousands died of starvation. Cities and villages were 
attacked solely for the sake of devouring the slain. In- 
dividuals were seized and slain by bands of men driven 
to madness by their hunger. 

There was no Red Cross Committee in those days 
for the relief of the starving populations and even if so, 
no person wearing a cross would have been permitted 
to carry to them a loaf of bread lest the religious sensi- 
bilities of Yussuf and his Infidel hordes should be 
deeply wounded. 

Starvation was his best ally. It swept off multitudes 
he could not reach with the sword. The tender heart 
of the Sultan of Turkey must not to-day be lacerated 
with even suggestion that there is more merc} r under 
the cross than under his own blood-red crescent. He 
turns fair and fertile provinces into cemeteries and 
makes of villages heaps of ruins, then publishes to Eu- 
rope that he has restored peace to his people. 

Peace returned to Armenia for twenty-five years how- 
ever after the driving out of the Persians, Apas suc- 
ceeding his brother Ashod II. Multitudes of self-exiled 
Armenians returned to their deserted fields and ruined 
villages, and peace soon made the valleys smile again. 

Cities were restored, magnificent churches erected. 
The city of Ani whs chosen as the new capital. But 
Ashod III., derives his greatest fame from his private 
virtues. Having built a number of hospitals, infirmaries 
and almshouses for the poor and suffering he gave his 
personal attention to their management. He visited 
them frequently, indulging in kindliest familiarity with 
the poorest. 

He even invited the poor, the sick and the maimed to 



42 EARLY HISTORY OF ARMENIA. 

eat with him at his own table. So unbounded was he 
in his donations to the poor and distressed that on his 
death not a single piece of money was found in his 
treasury. Hence he was surnamed the charitable. 

These are the kind of men whom for more than a 
thousand years the Saracens and Turks have been try- 
ing to exterminate as dogs of Christians. And the 
work still goes fearfully on because the great Christian 
Powers of Europe say the Turk must be upheld and 
reverenced because he holds the balance of power. It 
would not do to offer him anything more than a diplo- 
matic hint that some slight reform might be acceptable 
even if only put on paper to show to the guardians of 
poor, perishing Armenia. 

Sumpad II., succeeded his father and completed the 
fortifying of the city of Ani. He surrounded it with a 
wall of exceeding height and thickness on which he 
raised lofty towers for the stations of its defenders. 
The wall was protected from assault by a wide, deep 
moat encompassing the city the whole being faced with 
stone and brick. It took him eight years, to finish it. 
This city became the center of power and influence. A 
very large number of churches were erected so that in 
all they reached the surprising number of one thousand 
and one. The next largest city was Ardgen contain- 
ing three hundred thousand souls and eight hundred 
churches. 

The Empire was consolidated and strong and re- 
tained its prosperity and power until some years after 
the close of the century, (A. D., 1020). 

Let us leave for a while this ancient race at the 
height of its power and glory, the only Christian Na- 
tion that western Asia has ever had, and take a glance 



EARLY HISTORY OF ARMENIA. 43 

at the uprising of that power of Islam which to-day. is, 
as for more than a thousand years it has been, the bit- 
terest foe of the Church of Christ, the most ruthless 
destroyer of human life, the most brutal oppressor of 
enslaved humanity, which has always and everywhere 
robbed woman of her honor and immortality, mother- 
hood of its glory, childhood of its innocence, the Deity 
of His mercy and even Heaven itself of its purity, mak- 
ing of Paradise its vestibule only a Mohammedan Ser- 
aglio. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE RISE OF ISLAM. 

The reader will please turn aside for awhile to con- 
sider the rise of an alien religion which was destined to 
change the map of Europe and the course of history for 
many centuries ; a religion which binds with fanatical 
zeal a sixth part of the human race ; a power, which 
gathering its forces from the sands of Arabia swept 
like a fierce and pitiless simoon over the most ancient 
civilizations, until the flag of the Prophet waved from 
the Indus to the pillars of Hercules over an empire 
vaster than that ever ruled by Roman legions and Roman 
law. 

While empires and kingdoms rose and fell ; and the 
shock of contending armies shook all Europe and 
Northern Africa, and convulsed the rest of Asia, on its 
southwestern border, protected by the Red Sea, the 
Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf and vast stretches of burn- 
ing sand, lay a great peninsula by the name of Arabia, 
almost untouched by the cataclysm of centuries. In 
the depths of its deserts, its primitive character and in- 
dependence remained unchanged, nor had the nomadic 
tribes of Ishmael ever bent their haughty necks to serv- 
itude. 

For more than two thousand years Ishmael had been 
"a wild man; his hand against every man and every 
man's hand against him " and now the other word " I 
will make him a great nation " was about to receive its 
fulfillment. 
44 



THE RISE OF ISLAM. it 

Our first thought of Arabia is of a barren, desert, 
country inhabited by a few wandering tribes, of little 
importance. But it is an immense country, almost as 
large as India, with a population of millions. Among its 
mountains are beautiful and fertile valleys, towns and 
castles surrounded by orchards and vineyards, groves 
of palm trees and date-palms, fields of grain and well- 
stocked pastures. In the south were the people of 
Yemen — or Arabia the Happy — that land of spices, per- 
fumes and frankincense ; the Sheba of the Scriptures. 

These were the most active and skillful navigators 
of the eastern seas and brought the wealth of the far 
East to their ports : thence by caravans all these ming- 
led products were distributed to Syria, Egypt and other 
lands on the borders of the Mediterranean. The cara- 
vans were generally fitted out and conducted by the 
nomadic tribes, who added to the merchandise of other 
lands the exquisite and costly garments woven from 
the finest fleeces of their countless flocks and herds. 
In Arabia, above all the other lands in the East, the 
track of the caravan has borne on it greater riches even 
than the ships of Tarshish. 

At the intersection of two such tracks where the 
goods of India and of Africa were interchanged, and 
where the gold of the Roman Empire was weighed 
against the spices of " Araby the Blest," was situated 
the great emporium of Mecca. 

Mecca was both the commercial and religious center 
of the whole peninsula. Although there was no politi- 
cal capital, the tribe feeling had led to the establish- 
ment of a form of government aristocratic rather than 
despotic, The noblest tribe among them all was the 
Koreish; the noblest family of the Koreish was that of 



46 THE RISE OF ISLAM. 

Hashem : and the family of Hashem at the time of 
which we are writing were the rulers of Mecca and the 
guardians of its Kaaba. 

The original religion of Arabia appears to have been 
the patriarchal monotheism in which there was still re- 
tained some knowledge of one, true, living, personal 
Deity. One supreme God was still worshiped, but in 
the language of the Koran they "gave Him compan- 
ions," they paid adoration to various subordinate 
powers, as to the host of heaven — to three female in- 
telligences spoken of as the daughters of God, and to 
various family, local and national idols of which three 
hundred and sixty were found in the temple at Mecca 

This ancient temple, built according to Arabian tra- 
dition by the patriarch Abraham, contained besides 
these molten and graven images, the Black Stone — one 
of the stones of Paradise which fell down with Adam, 
but being taken up at the deluge, it was brought to 
Abraham by the angel Gabriel as a sacred ornament for 
his restored temple. At any rate, here at this temple in 
Mecca was the great center of worship, of sacrifice, and 
to it thronged in vast numbers the idolaters of Arabia. 

The wild Arab of the desert and the comparatively 
civilized Arab of the cities show, though in different 
degrees, the same great elements of national character. 
Among them all the virtues and the vices of the half 
savage state, its revenge and its rapacity, its hospitality 
and its bounty were to be seen in their full force. How 
often have we had pictured before us the simplicity and 
beauty of such a natural life. 

This wild man has been described as generous and 
hospitable. He delighted in giving gifts ; his door was 
always open to the wayfarer, with whom he was ready 



*HE fetSfe OF ISLAM. 4? 

to share his last morsel ; and his deadliest foe, having 
once broken bread with him, might repose securely be- 
neath the inviolable sanctity of his tent. 

His social life, however, was most degraded. Drunk- 
enness, gambling and unrestrained licentiousness 
abounded : the horrible practice of female infanticide 
was prevalent among the pagan tribes : while polyg- 
amy, that curse of the East, everywhere prevailed. 

Though speaking a language, copious in the extreme, 
the words of which have been compared to gems and 
flowers, literature in the strict sense of that word can 
hardly be said to have existed ; but the Arab had a 
quick intellect, was always ready with a native vein of 
rhetoric and was easily aroused by the appeals of elo- 
quence and charmed by the graces of poetry. He was 
naturally an orator, delighted in proverbs and clothed 
his ideas in florid oriental style with apologue and par- 
able. 

While thus a degraded and degrading polytheism 
was the prevailing religion of Arabia, many Jews were 
to be found at Medina and in the cities bordering on 
Syria, and there was also a corrupted form of Christian- 
ity incrusted with numerous errors and superstitions, so 
that in no part of the world did Christianity give forth 
so feeble a light. 

A very decided reform was imperatively needed to 
restore the belief in the unity of God and set up a 
higher standard of morality. 

It is claimed by his admirers that Mohammed brought 
about such a reform. He was born in the year 570 of 
the family of Hashem and the tribe of Koreish to whom 
was entrusted the guardianship of the pagan temple 
and the Black Stone. Early left an orphan and in 



48 THE RISE OF ISLAM. 

poverty, he was reared in the family of one of his 
uncles under all the influences of idolatry. This uncle 
was a merchant, and the youth made long journeys with 
him to distant fairs, especially into Syria where he be- 
came acquainted with the Holy Scriptures, especially 
with the Old Testament. At the age of twenty-five he 
entered the service of Cadijeh, a very wealthy widow 
conducting her immense caravans to fairs in distant 
cities. His personal beauty, his intelligence and spirit, 
won the heart of this powerful mistress and she became 
his wife. 

He was now second to none in Arabia and his soul 
began to meditate on great things. There was in bis 
household his wife's cousin, Waraka, a man of flexible 
faith and of speculative spirit ; originally a Jew, then a 
Christian, and withal a pretender to astrology. His 
name is worthy of notice as being the first on record to 
translate parts of the Old and New Testaments into 
Arabic. 

As Mohammed contrasted these spiritual religions 
with the surrounding idolatry, he became more and 
more sensible of its grossness and absurdity. It ap- 
peared to him that the time for another reform had 
arrived. He talked with his uncles, they laughed at 
him. Only Cadijeh listened to him, believed in him, 
and encouraged him. Long afterwards, when she was 
dead, Ayeshah, his young and favorite wife, once asked 
him : " Am I not better than Cadijeh ? Do you not 
love me better than you did her? She was a widow, 
old and ugly ? " " No, by Allah," said the prophet, 
" she believed in me when no one else did. In the 
whole world I had but one friend, and she was thai 
friend." 



THE RISE OF ISLAM. 



49 



Without her sympathy and faith he probably would 
have failed. He told her, and her alone, his dreams, 
his ecstasies, his visions; how that God at different 
times had sent prophets and teachers to reveal new 
truth : how this one God who created the heavens and 
the earth had never left himself without witness in 
the most degraded times. 

It was in the fortieth year of his age while spending 
the month Ramadhan in the cavern of Mount Hara in 
fasting and prayer that an angel appeared to him and 
commanded him to read the writing displayed to him 
on a silken cloth. 

Instantly he felt his understanding illumined with 
celestial light and read what was written thereon : — 
they were the decrees of God as afterwards promul- 
gated in the Koran. When he had finished reading the 
angel said: "O Mohammed of a truth, thou art the 
prophet of God ! and I am His angel Gabriel — " 

In the morning, as we are told, Mohammed came 
trembling to Cadijeh not knowing whether what he 
had heard and seen was indeed true ; and that he was 
a prophet decreed to effect that reform so long the ob- 
ject of his meditations ; or whether it might not be a 
hallucination or worse than all, the apparition of an 
evil spirit. Cadijeh, however, saw everything with the 
eye of faith and the credulity of an affectionate wife. 
" Rejoice, Allah will not suffer thee to fall to shame." 
Waraka caught eagerly at the oracle and exclaimed, 
" Thou speakest true, O Cadijeh ! The angel who has 
appeared to thy husband is the same who, in days of 
old, was sent to Moses the son of Amram. His annuncia- 
tion is true. Thy husband is indeed a prophet." The 
wavering mind of Mohammed was thus confirmed and 



50 The kisE oe islam. 

throughout his life and even in the hour of death he 
never uttered a word of doubt concerning his heaven- 
sent mission. 

" This," says Carlyle, " is the soul of Islam. This is 
what Mohammed felt and now declared to be of infinite 
moment, that idols and formulas were nothing: that 
the jargon of argumentative Greek sects, the vague 
traditions of Jews, the stupid routine of Arab idolatry 
were a mockery and a delusion ; that there is but one 
God: that we must let idols alone and look to Him. 
He alone is reality. He made us and sustains us. 
Our whole strength lies in submission to Him. The 
thing He sends us, be it death even, is good, is the 
best. We resign ourselves to Him." 

Thus far while possessed of this sole idea that he 
must proclaim to his degenerate countrymen in the 
midst of all but universal polytheism, that there is but 
one supreme God, Mohammed is regarded as a great 
reformer. He was neither a fanatic nor hypocrite ; he 
was a very great man, and according to his light a very 
good man. 

He began to preach everywhere that first word of 
Revelation " Hear O Israel ! The Lord our God is 
one Lord." " Thou shalt have no other Gods before 
me." Few, however, believed in him. But why not 
acknowledge such a fundamental truth, appealing to 
the intellect as well as the moral sense? Because to 
confess that there is a supreme God who rewards and 
punishes, and to whom all are responsible both for 
words and actions, is to imply a confession of sinful- 
ness and the justice of retribution. 

Those degraded Arabians would not receive will- 
ingly such a truth as this ; and how did the Israelites 



THE RISE OF ISLAM. 51 

forget it in spite of deliverance from slavery and 
quickly fall back into idoltary : and how opposed it is 
to the epicureanism of to-day and the natural pride of 
the human breast. 

The uncles and friends of Mohammed treated his 
message with scorn and derision. Zealously he labored 
for three years, yet with all his eloquence, fervor and 
sincerity he had only won by his preaching some thir- 
teen persons, one of whom was his slave. 

His wordly relatives urged him to silence. Why 
attack idols ? Why destroy his own interests ? Why 
destroy his popularity? Then explained that great 
hero, "If the sun stood on my right hand and the moon 
on my left, ordering me to hold my peace I would still 
declare, there is but one God." A speech following in 
spirit the famous words of Luther at the Diet of 
Worms. 

At last hostilities began. He was threatened, he was 
persecuted. They laid plots to take his life. Then his 
wife died. The priests of an idolatrous religion be- 
came furious. He had laid hands on their idols. He 
was hated, persecuted and alone. Thirteen years had 
passed away in reproach, in persecution, in fear. At 
last forty picked men swore to assassinate him. 
Should he remain and die, or fly for his life ? He con- 
cluded to fly to Medina, where there were a few Jews 
and some nominal converts to Christianity. 

This was in the year 622 — and the flight is called 
the Hegira — from which the East dates its era ; the 
fifty-third year of the prophet's life. 

In this city he was cordially welcomed and soon 
found himself surrounded with enthusiastic followers. 
He built a mosque and openly performed the rites of 



52 THE RISE OF ISLAM. 

the new religion. He was for a time at a loss to know 
how to call his followers to prayer. While in this per- 
plexity, Abdallah, the son of Zeid, suggested a form 
of words that he declared were revealed to him in a 
vision. It was instantly adopted by Mohammed, and 
is to this day heard from the lofty minarets throughout 
the East calling the Moslems to prayer : " God is 
great ! God is great ! There is no God but God. 
Mohammed is the apostle of God. Come to prayers ! 
Come to prayers ! God is great ! God is great. There 
is no God but God." To which at dawn of day are 
added the words : " Prayer is better than sleep ! 
Prayer is better than sleep." 

Mohammed soon had an army at his disposal, and 
with this sudden accession of power there was wrought 
a fearful change in the spirit of his dreams. He had 
earnestly declared his great idea of the unity of God. 
He had pronounced the worship of images to be 
idolatrous. He held idoltary in supreme abhorrence. 
He enjoined charity, justice and forbearance. He de- 
nounced all falsehood and deception, especially in 
trade. He commanded his disciples to return good for 
evil, to be submissive to God ; declared humility and 
benevolence to be the greatest virtues. He enjoined 
prayers, fastings and meditation as a means of grace. 

But when he found an army at his command he lost 
command of himself. His anger burned against the 
Koreishites and their vindictive chief, Abu Sofian who 
now held full sway at Mecca. By them his fortunes 
had been blasted, his family degraded, impoverished, 
dispersed, and he himself driven into exile. He began 
to have visions to suit his changing temper, as all 
false religionists have even down to our own day. He 



THE RISE OF ISLAM. 53 

declared himself, the last of all the prophets, to be sent 
forth into the world with the sword : " Let those who 
promulgate my faith enter into no argument nor dis- 
cussion ; but slay all who refuse obedience to the law. 
Whoever rights for the true faith whether he fall or 
conquer will assuredly receive a glorious reward. * * * 
The sword is the key of heaven and hell ; and all who 
draw it in the cause of the faith will be rewarded with 
temporal advantages ; every drop shed of their blood, 
every peril and hardship endured by them, will be 
registered on high as more meritorious than even fast- 
ing or prayer. If they fall in battle, their sins will at 
once be blotted out, and they will be transported to 
Paradise, there to revel in eternal pleasures in the 
arms of black-eyed houris." He added to this promise 
of sensual pleasures the doctrine of fixed -fate, predes- 
tination absolute. No man could die sooner or later 
than his alloted hour and when it arrived, it would be 
the same, whether the angel of death should find him 
in the quiet of his bed, or amid the storm of battle. 

Behold in these words the chief sources of the fanat- 
ical fury which had well-nigh conquered the entire 
christian world. 

It is as if some Mephistopheles had whispered in his 
ear ; " thy countrymen are wild, fierce and warlike, 
incite their martial passions in defence of thy doctrines. 
They are a fanatical people and believing in these 
teachings they will fight for them and establish them 
not only in Arabia but throughout the East. Grant 
them a reward in what their passions crave and they 
will follow you to the death." 

Certainly this is true, that these counsels of evil let 
loose upon the world the fiercest, the most cruel and 



54 THE RISE OF ISLAM. 

rapacious passions that were ever set on fire in hell. 
He resolved to adopt his religion to the depraved hearts 
of his followers. He mingled with sublimest truth the 
most debasing error. It was success he wanted ; he 
would no longer scruple as to the means used to secure 
it. He became ambitious. He would become a mighty 
spiritual potentate, but descended to the level of his 
people to win them. He granted polygamy under the 
sanction of a pretended revelation from heaven. He 
who in his youth had been faithful to Cadijeh, fifteen 
years his senior, was now in his own age false to his 
youthful wife Ayeshah, multiplied wives to himself, 
robbed his faithful Zeid of his beautiful wife, absolved 
himself from his own law that a believer could only 
have four wives, and brought forth new revelations to 
justify in himself the gratifications of passions he con- 
demned in others. 

In the second year of the Hegira, Mohammed grati- 
fied his revenge against the Koreishites by attacking a 
caravan of a thousand camels laden with the merchan- 
dise of Syria. His arch enemy, Abu Sofian, com- 
manded the escort. In this fight, known as the battle 
of Beder, the Moslems were victorious. It was during 
the progress of this battle that Mohammed encouraged 
his warriors with the memorable words: "Fight and 
fear not ; the gates of Paradise are under the shade of 
swords." This first cavalcade entering Medina with 
spoils, made Moslems of all the inhabitants and gave 
him control of the city. A few years later, at the head 
of ten thousand horsemen, he entered the city of Mecca 
— nothing but the swift commands of Mohammed to 
Khaled, " The Sword of God," preserving the city from 
a general massacre. Mohammed now proceeded to 




Monastic Rock Chambebs at Guebemeh. 



THE RISE OF ISLAM. 57 

execute the great object of his religious aspirations — 
the purifying of the temple. He entered it with the 
sublime words : " Truth is come ; let falsehood dis- 
appear," and shivered in quick succession the three 
hundred and sixty abominations which were in the 
holy place. 

Mohammed soon found himself the sovereign of all 
Arabia ; and yet his military triumphs awakened no 
pride nor vain glory as they would have done had they 
been effected for selfish ends. He ever maintained the 
same simplicity of manners as in the days of his adver- 
sity. As to the temporal rule which grew up in his 
hands, as he used it without ostentation, so he took no 
steps to perpetuate it in his family. The riches which 
poured in upon him from tribute and the spoils of war 
were used in relieving the poor or expended in pro- 
moting the victories of the faith ; so that his treasury 
was often drained of its last coin. " Allah " says an 
Arabian historian "offered him the keys of all the 
treasures of the earth ; but he refused to accept them." 

It is this abnegation of self and his apparently heart- 
felt piety that even in his own dying hour, when there 
could be no worldly motive for deceit, still breathed 
the same religious devotion and the same belief in his 
apostolic mission ; that so perplexes one in trying to 
estimate justly the full force of his character. 

Whatever we may think of Mohammed personally, 
even though we may concede that he was a sincere re- 
ligious fanatic we can but hold in abhorrence the re- 
ligion which has ever appealed to the sword and to the 
basest passions of men either to compel or persuade 
them to yield allegiance to Islam. When he died at the 
age of sixty-three, eleven years after the Hegira, Mo- 



58 THE RISE OF ISLAM. 

hammed was next to Buddha, the most successful 
founder of a religion the world has ever known — a reli- 
gion that is the most relentless and bitterest foe to 
Christianity, and that stands like a wall of fire and of 
adamant to oppose its progress in all the East. 

The Saracens were ever loyal to the truth for which 
they fought. They never became idolaters ; but their 
religion has ever been built up on the miseries of 
nations. To propagate the faith of Mohammed the3 r 
drew the sword and overran the world. Never were 
conquests more rapid, more terrible or more remark- 
able. 

Upon the death of Mohammed, Abu Beker, the father 
of Ayeshah, was elected to the supreme power, but re- 
fused to be called king or God's vicar on earth, assum- 
ing only that of Caliph, that is to say Successor, and 
by this title the Arab sovereigns have ever since been 
designated. He was indifferent to riches, to all pomp 
and luxuries; his Arab establishment was of the simplest 
kind: his retinue consisting of a camel and a black 
slave. 

The Golden Age of the Saracens was the twelve years, 
A. D. 632-644, comprised in the reigns of Abu Beker 
and Omar — a period of uninterrupted harmony and 
external conquest. Though Mohammed was dead, the 
sword of Islam was not buried with him ; for Khaled, 
surnamed the Sword of God, now advanced to sustain 
the fame of former conquests. Within a year, Mos- 
eilma, a rival, and hence a false prophet, was slain, the 
rebellion subdued, the empire of Islam firmly reestab- 
lished in Arabia ; the scattered leaves gathered for 
the Koran ; and an army for the subjugation of Syria 
and the East. 



THE RISE OF ISLAM. 59 

It was a strangely opportune hour for the fierce war- 
riors of the desert. The Romans and the Persians were 
almost always engaged in warfare and their last and 
most terrible war was contemporary with the preaching 
of Mohammed. 

Under the great Khosru a war began which lasted 
more than twenty years and exhausted both nations and 
left them a more easy pre}' to the Saracens. The Asiatic 
provinces fell under his victorious armies and, as in the 
days of Darius, the Persian Empire extended to the 
Mediterranean and the iEgean Seas. When Heradius 
in 610 A. D. came to the throne of Constantinople, he 
was compelled to submit to the sight of a Persian 
army encamped at Chalcedon ; but after some years' 
preparation, he entered on a series of campaigns which 
places his name beside those of Hannibal and Belisa- 
rius. Leaving his own dominions, he struck at the very 
heart of his enemy's country, and by a series of victor- 
ies, one of them gained on the site of Nineveh, he 
utterly overthrew the Persian power, till Khosru 
was slain by his own subjects and a peace was con- 
cluded. Heradius returned to Constantinople leaving 
Persia torn by contending factions. The Prophet had 
been diligently watching from his safe retreat the 
course of the war which is alluded to in the Koran, 
and now the hour had come for the Saracens to strike 
their fatal blow. 

In the second year of his reign, therefore, Abu Beker 
prepared for the great enterprise contemplated by Mo- 
hammed — the conquest of Syria. — Under this general 
name was included all the country lying on the north 
of Arabia and extending from the Mediterranean and 
the Euphrates. This had long been a land of promise 



60 THE KISE OF ISLAM. 

to them. It was a land of abundance. From it they 
had drawn their chief supplies of corn. Its cities had 
long been chief marts for the merchandise of their 
caravans ; its seaports still were the centers of an 
opulent and widely extended commerce. This sum- 
mons was sent to the chiefs of Arabia Petrea, and 
Arabia Felix : " In the name of the Most Merciful 
God * * * to all true believers, health, happiness and 
the blessing of God. Praise be to God and to Mo- 
hammed his prophet. This is to inform you that I in- 
tend to send an army of the faithful into Syria, to de- 
liver that country from the infidels, and I remind you 
that to fight for the true faith is to obey God." 

This call to the conquest of nations in the name of 
the most merciful God is tender compared with the 
prayers which is now being daily offered up by the 
Mohammedans regarding the Armenians : " O Allah ! 
make their children orphans, and defile their abodes. 
Cause their feet to slip, give them and their families, 
their households and their women, their children and 
their relations by marriage, their brothers and their 
friends, their possessions and their race, their wealth 
and their lands as booty to the Moslems, O Lord of all 
creatures." 

Has the spirit of Islam changed any during the last 
twelve hundred years ? certainly not, except it be as 
much for the worse as the Turk is more lustful and 
cruel than the Saracen. 

Speedily the plains about Medina were covered with 
the encampments of the chiefs who had responded 
from all Arabia, in hope of the rich booty to be had 
from conquered cities and provinces. From the brow 
of a hill, Abu Beker reviewed the army on the point of 



THE RISE OF ISLAM. 61 

departure. His heart swelled with pride, as he gazed 
on the passing multitudes ; the glittering arms ; the 
squadrons of horsemen ; the lengthening line of cam- 
els, and called to mind the handful of men that fol- 
lowed Mohammed a fugitive from Mecca. Scarce ten 
years had elapsed, and now a mighty host assembled 
at the summons of his successor, and distant empires 
were threatened by the sword of Islam. He lifted up 
his voice and prayed God to make these troops valiant 
and victorious. Then giving the word to march, the 
tents were struck, the camels laden, and in a little 
while the army poured forth in a long, continuous train 
over hill and valley. 

The "Scourge of God" was let loose against the 
nations. Before long an immense cavalcade of horses, 
mules and camels came pouring in with the booty from 
the first victory over a body of troops sent by the Em- 
peror Heradius to observe them and harass their march. 

Soon four armies were in the field ; Jerusalem and 
Damascus were doomed and fate hastened on its march 
to Persia in the person of Khaled, " The Sword of 
God " with an army of ten thousand men. He be- 
sieged the city of Hira ; stormed its palaces ; slew the 
king in battle ; subdued the kingdom ; imposed on it 
an annual tribute of seventy thousand pieces of gold ; 
the first tribute ever levied by Moslems on a foreign 
land, and sent the same to Medina. City after city fell 
before him. Nothing seemed able to withstand his 
arms. Planting his victorious standard on the banks 
of the Euphrates, he wrote to the Persian monarch call- 
ing upon him to embrace the faith or pay tribute. 
" If you refuse both, I will come upon you with a host 
who love death as much as you do life." 



62 THE RISE OF ISLAM. 

But meantime partial defeat had discouraged the 
leaders of the armies in Syria, and the caliph sum- 
moned Khaled to the command of the northern armies. 
Leaving the army in Persia under the command of a 
tried and trusty general, Khaled with an escort of fif- 
teen hundred men spurred across the Syrian borders to 
join the Moslem host about to besiege the christian 
city of Bosra. 

It was on the Syrian frontier, a walled city of great 
strength and wealth, that could at anytime put twelve 
thousand men into the field. 

After two days of furious battle the city was taken 
by treachery, many were massacred, and the survivors 
were compelled to pass under the yoke. 

Khaled now aspired to the capture of Damascus. 
This renowned and beautiful city, one of the largest 
and most magnificent in the East and possibly the oldest 
in the world, stood in a plain of wondrous fertility, 
covered with groves and gardens. Through this plain 
flowed a river called by the ancients "The Stream of 
Gold," feeding the canals and water courses of its 
gardens and the fountains of the city. 

This most beautiful city lay at the mercy of the 
coming foe. As the Moslems accustomed to the bar- 
renness of the desert came in sight of the rich plain of 
Damascus and wound along the banks of the shining 
river, it seemed as if they were already realizing the 
paradise promised by the Prophet to true believers: 
but when the walls and towers and fanes of the city 
rose upon their vision they could not restrain their 
shouts of rapture. For the many deeds of valor and 
personal prowess in single combat, and the fierce and 
repeated charges of either army, the reader may be re- 



THE RISE OP ISLAM. 63 

ferred to the brilliant pages of living's Mahomet or 
Ockley's Saracens. 

The inhabitants tried to bribe Khaled to raise the 
siege. The stern reply was : Embrace Islam, pay 
tribute ; or fight unto the death. While the Arabs 
lay close encamped about the city as if watching its 
expiring throes, unusual shouts were one day heard 
within its walls. The cause of it proved to be that an 
army of one hundred thousand men sent by Heraclius 
from Antioch were drawing near to their relief. 

With fierceness yet the coolness of a practiced war- 
rior Khaled marched to the support of a small body of 
horsemen who had been sent to harass the enemy. He 
met and defeated division after division of this Roman 
army, defeating it in detail by an army less than a 
third of their number. Thousands of fugitives were 
slain in the pursuit that followed. An immense booty 
in treasure, arms, baggage, and horses fell into his 
hands ; and Khaled flushed with conquest, fatigued and 
burdened with the spoils, led back his army to resume 
the siege of Damascus. 

Word was soon received however that another army 
of seventy thousand men had been gathered by Hera- 
clius to raise the siege of Damascus. Sending swift 
couriers to all the Moslem generals within his call to 
meet him at the camp of the Greeks, he began a hasty 
march to Aiznadin. When the Moslems beheld the 
multitude and formidable array of the imperial host 
they at first quailed at the sight : but Khaled harangued 
them witli fervid speech : " You behold,' he said, "the 
last stake of the infidels. This army met and vanquished 
they can never muster another force, and all Syria is 
ours." Khaled armed the fierce women who were 



64 THE RISE OP ISLAM. 

among them — some of them of the highest rank with 
orders to slay any Moslem whom they saw turning his 
back to the foe. Reinforced by fresh thousands, when, 
after some preliminary skirmishes, on the second day 
the trumpets sounded a general charge, the imperial 
armies were struck with confusion and what followed 
was rather a massacre than a battle. They broke and 
fled in all directions to Csesarea, to Damascus and to 
Antioch. The booty of the camp was of immense value, 
which Khaled declared should not be divided until after 
the capture of Damascus. 

Great indeed was the consternation in the city when 
they learned from the fugitives that escaped, of the 
slaughter of this second army and that all hope of suc- 
cor was gone. But they set themselves bravely to 
work to meet the coming storm. New fortifications 
were erected. The walls were lined with engines for 
hurling stones and darts upon the besiegers. 

Soon the Moslems appeared greatly reinforced. The 
city was invested. The troops were carefully stationed 
and orders given as to the support to be given. The 
battles that followed were fierce as the passions of des- 
perate men could make them. One day a simultaneous 
sortie was made from every gate of the city at the first 
peep of day. The besiegers were taken by surprise and 
were struck clown before they could arm themselves or 
mount. Khaled is said to have wept as he beheld the 
carnage and the slaughter of his finest troops. " O 
thou, who never sleepest, aid thy faithful servants ; let 
them not fall beneath the weapons of the infidels." 
Finally the tide of battle turned and the Christians 
were repulsed and driven within the walls leaving 
several thousand dead on the field. It was no dis- 



THE RISE OF ISLAM. 65 

grace for even such Christians to be beaten by such 
Moslems. 

For seventy days had Damascus been besieged by 
these fanatic legions of the desert. They had no heart 
to make further sallies. They began to talk of capitula- 
tion. Khaled turned a deaf ear to their prayer for a 
truce : he was bent upon taking the city by the sword 
and giving it up to be plundered by his Arabs. Then 
they sought under promise of security the meek and 
humane Abu Obeidah. One hundred of the principal 
inhabitants went by night to this leader of the mighty 
power that was shaking the empire of the Orient, and 
found him living in a humble haircloth tent like a 
mere wanderer of the desert. He listened to their pro- 
posals, for his object was conversion rather than con- 
quest, and tribute rather than plunder. A covenant 
was written ; such of the inhabitants as pleased could 
depart in safety with so much of their effects as they 
could carry : the rest should remain as tributaries and 
have seven churches allotted to them. The gate was 
then thrown open and the venerable chief entered at 
the head of a hundred men to take possession. 

At the eastern gate a very different transaction was 
taking place. An apostate priest, on condition of se- 
curity of person and property to himself and relatives, 
agreed to deliver the gate into the hands of Khaled. 
Thus a hundred Arabs were introduced into the city, 
broke the bolts and chains and bars of the Eastern gate 
and threw it open with the cry " Allah Achbar." 

Khaled and his legions rushed in at the gate with 
sound of trumpet and tramp of steeds ; putting all to 
the sword, deluging the streets with blood. " Mercy ! 
Mercy ! " was the cry. " No mercy for infidels," was 



66 THE RISE OF ISLaiv_ 

Khaled's fierce response. He pursued his career of 
carnage into the great square and there to his utter as- 
tonishment beheld Abu Obeidah and his attendants, 
with priests and monks, surrounded by the principal 
inhabitants and women and children. 

Khaled was furious when he heard of the covenant. 
Abu Obeidah entreated him to respect the covenant he 
had made in the name of God and the prophet. 

After fierce altercation he listened to policy though 
deaf to the cry of pity. They were just beginning 
their career of conquest. Many cities were to be taken. 
If the Moslem word was broken, other cities warned by 
the fate of Damascus would in fear and fury fight to 
the bitter end. 

Khaled finally gave a slow consent, though murmur- 
ing at every article of the covenant. 

All who chose to remain as tributaries were to enjoy 
the free exercise of their religion. All who wished 
might depart, but Khaled only gave them three days 
grace from pursuit. 

It was a piteous sight to behold aged men, delicate 
and shrinking women, and helpless children thus setting 
forth with what they could carry on a wandering jour- 
ney through wastes and deserts and mountains, and the 
angry hordes of Arabs only three days behind them 
and swiftly mounted. Many a time did they turn to 
east another look of fondness and despair on their 
beautiful palaces and luxuriant gardens; and still they 
would turn and weep and beat their breasts — gaze 
through tears on the stately towers of Damascus and 
the flowery banks of the Pharpar. Thus Damascus 
was conquered and yet spared both fire and sword after 
more than a twelve months' siege, which Voltaire has 



THE RISE OP ISLAM. 67 

likened for its stratagems, skirmishes and deeds of valor 
in single combat, to Homer's Siege of Troy. 

•The cities of Baalbec, the famous city of the Sun, 
and Eraessa the capital of the plains, with many inter- 
mediate cities soon fell before the victorious sword 
of Khaled. 

After a short rest at Damascus Abu Obeidah wrote, 
asking if he should undertake the siege of Csesarea or 
Jerusalem. The decision was for the instant siege of 
Jerusalem. 

This was a holy war for the Moslems and soon the 
army was on the march to Jerusalem. The people saw 
the approach of these triumphant invaders : but sent 
out no plea for help. They planted engines on their 
walls and prepared for vigorous defence. 

At early dawn, in the morning of the first assault, 
the Moslem host was marshalled — the leaders repeated 
the Matin prayer, each at the head of his battalion, and 
all as if by one consent with a loud voice gave the 
verse of the Koran " Enter ye, oh people ! into the 
holy land which Allah hath destined for you." 

For ten days they made repeated but unavailing at- 
tacks and then the whole army was brought to their 
aid. Then a summons was sent requiring the inhabit- 
ants to accept the divine mission of Mohammed, to ac- 
knowledge allegiance and pay tribute to the Caliph, 
otherwise he concludes, "Nor will I leave you, God 
willing, until I have destroyed your fighting men and 
made slaves of your children." 

But the Christian Patriarch of Jerusalem felt confi- 
dence in setting the invaders at defiance, and above all, 
there was a pious incentive to courage and perseverance 
in defending the Sepulchre of Christ. 



68 THE 1USE OP ISLAM. 

Four wintry months elapsed and still the siege was 
carried on with undiminished spirit. Finally the Patri- 
arch consented to give up the city if the Caliph would 
come in person to take possession and sign the articles 
of surrender. 

To preserve the city, and inspirit his own troops aftei 
their long absence and the hardships of many campaigns 
the Caliph consented. His journey was made in ut- 
most Simplicity. He traveled on a red camel across 
which was slung his saddle bags, one pocket containing 
dates and dried fruits, and the other, nothing more than 
barley, rice or wheat, parched or sodden. 

His companions ate with him out of a common 
wooden platter, using their fingers in true oriental 
style. At night he slept on a mat under a tree or un- 
der a common Bedouin tent : and never resumed his 
march until he had offered up the morning prayer. 

When he came in sight of Jerusalem he lifted up his 
voice and exclaimed " Allah Achbar, God is mighty! 
God grant us an easy conquest." 

We give the degrading conditions somewhat in full 
as they formed the basis upon which other cities 
were granted terms of peace. " The Christians were 
to build no new churches in the surrendered territory. 

* * No crosses should be erected on the churches nor 
shown openly in the streets. They should not speak 
openly of their religion ; nor attempt to make prose- 
lytes ; nor hinder their kinsfolk from embracing Islam. 

* * * They should entertain every Moslem traveler 
three days gratis. They should sell no wine, bear no 
arms, and use no saddle in riding, nor sit in the pres- 
ence of a Mohammedan." 

This utter prostration of all civil and religious liberty 



THE RISE OF ISLAM. 69 

took place in the old scenes of Christian triumph. The 
most bitter scorn and abhorrence of their religious ad- 
versaries formed main pillars in the Moslem faith. 
Upon agreeing to these degrading terms the Caliph gave 
them under his own hand an assurance of protection in 
their lives and fortunes, the use of their churches and 
the exercise of their religion. 

The gates of the once splendid city of Solomon were 
then opened. Omar entered it in reverence and on 
foot in his simple Arab garb and soon the flag of the 
Prophet waved over the battlements of the Holy 
City. Strange city that is thus held in equal reverence 
by Moslem, Jew and Christian. The surrender of 
Jerusalem took place in the seventeenth year of the 
Hegira, the six hundred and thirty-seventh year of the 
Christian era. With the rapidly succeeding fall of 
Aleppo, Antioch, Tripoli and Tyre the conquest of 
Syria was complete. It still remains under the heel of 
the invader after more than twelve hundred years of 
varying fortunes. 

Meanwhile the conquest of Persia had been pushed 
forward vigorously since the fall of Damascus. After 
the battle of Kadesia in which thirty thousand Persians 
are said to have fallen and upwards of seven thousand 
Moslems, all Persia lay at the feet of the conquerors. 
As they advanced with an army of sixty thousand 
against the capital Madayn the ancient Ctesiphor, fear 
paralyzed the King and his counsellors. There was no 
one brave enough to take the command and when the 
enemy were only a day's march away they decided on 
flight to the mountains, leaving behind them the richest 
city of the world to be sacked by the Arabs. The 
spoil was incalculable. It required a caravan of nine 



70 THE RISE OF ISLAM. 

hundred heavily laden camels to convey to Medina the 
Caliph's fifth part of the spoil. 

Thus fell without a blow the capital of Persia in the 
same fateful year that saw the desolation of Jeru- 
salem. 

But one more struggle remained — it was the death 
agony of the Persian Empire. The fugitive king gath- 
ered to his standard at Nehavend, on the plains of 
Hamadan, one hundred and fifty thousand men. Tidings 
were sent to the Caliph Omar at Medina — and there in 
the Mosque, by a handful of grey-headed Arabs, who 
but a few years previously had been homeless wander- 
ers, was debated and decided the fate of the once mag- 
nificent empires of the Orient, — Syria, Chaldea, Baby- 
lonia and the dominions of the Medes and Persians. 

The army of the Saracens, reinforced by men hardened 
in war, daring, confident, and led by able generals, was 
greatly inferior in numbers, but fired with zeal and the 
courage of death. 

At the signal given " Allah Achbar " thrice repeated 
with the shaking of the standard, the army rushed to 
battle rending the air with the universal shout " Allah 
Achbar ! Allah Achbar ! " The shock of the two armies 
was terrific. In an hour the Persians were routed ; by 
midnight their slain numbered a hundred thousand 
men, and their Empire was destroyed. The battle of 
Nehavend commemorated as "The Victory of Victories," 
took place in the twenty first year of the Hegira the 
year six hundred and forty-one of our era, and only 
nine years after the death of Mohammed. 

If all Syria fell in six years ; if the fate of Persia was 
decided by a single battle, Egypt may be said to have 
fallen in a single moment. With the fall of Alexandria 



THE EISE OF ISLAM. 71 

perished the largest library of the world, the thesaurus 
of all the intellectual treasures of antiquity. 

While Egypt was won almost without a blow, Latin 
Africa withstood the Saracens for sixty years. But at last 
it was conquered. Spain also fell. The world staggered. 
Thirty-six thousand cities, towns and castles had fallen. 
The armies of the Saracens were victorious from Scinde 
in India, westward to Constantinople, then southward 
they had swept through Palestine, Egypt, Northern 
Africa beyond the Pillars of Hercules into Spain, and 
were only and finally arrested in Western Europe as all 
the world knows by Charles Martel in 732 upon the 
field of Tours. 

But all the world does not know so well how that in 
673 the Saracens were beaten back from the walls of 
Constantinople and the Commander of the Faithful 
compelled to purchase peace by an annual tribute of 
three thousand pieces of gold, fifty slaves and fifty of 
the finest Arabian horses. The year 717 saw Constan- 
tinople again besieged by a Saracen army, but Leo, the 
Isaurian, again beat back the invader with utter defeat ; 
and no Moslem army ever again appeared under the 
walls of the New Rome, until a fiercer, ruder, more 
cruel race of Conquerors from the far East grasped 
again with bloody hand the sword of the Prophet. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE STOKY OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. 

As at one time Athens " was the Eye of Greece 
and Mother of the Arts " so both to pious Jew and 
humble Christian, Jerusalem has ever been the "City 
of God," the " Joy of the Whole Earth." To the 
fervid hearts of the early Christians a pilgrimage to that 
Holy City to see the sacred sights and commune with 
God amid scenes hallowed by the former presence of 
a Christ, was regarded as a mark of special faith and a 
source of peculiar blessing. After the Emperor Con- 
stantine removed his capital from Rome to Constanti- 
nople and embraced the Christian religion, Jerusalem 
was raised from its ruins, the way to the sacred places 
was made more easy and safe, and the spirit of pilgrim- 
age greatly revived and stimulated. The magnificent 
church of The Holy Sepulchre — decorated with pillars 
and adorned and paved with precious stones — was 
raised above the obscure tomb, while churches,. chapels 
and monuments filled the city and marked the places 
made sacred by the life and the death of the Saviour 
of the world. 

Pilgrims flocked in crowds into Judea from almost 
every country in Europe and Asia, and when thej' 
gathered in immense throngs about these holy places, 
lifting their voices in prayers and h} r mns in many lan- 
guages, the sound was like the Babel of former Pente- 
costs. Each returning pilgrim told his story of strange 
72 




The Sultan Abdul Hamid in the Park of Yildiz Palace. 



THE STORY OF THE FIRST CRUSA.DE. 75 

sights and of the refreshment and inspiration received 
from his visit. 

He had confirmed his faith by bathing in the Jor- 
dan, tested his faith by exposure and perils, warmed 
his emotions by prayer on Calvary and raised his soul 
in songs of praise in the Church of the Resurrection. 

But in 610 A. D., the armies of Persia overran the 
provinces of the Byzantine Empire, invading Syria, 
Palestine and Egypt, capturing Jerusalem and bearing 
away many Christian captives. 

Ten years of fiercest conflict followed and finally 
Heraclius, Emperor of Constantinople, recaptured the 
cit}\ In the imposing ceremonies and festivities which 
followed, the Emperor walked barefoot in the streets, 
bearing on his shoulders to the summit of Calvary, the 
wood of the true cross, which to their weird and super- 
stitious imaginations had been miraculously recovered. 
Jerusalem rescued, became more than ever an object of 
reverence. Blood had been shed for the church, only 
Christians should thenceforth be its custodians. Their 
joy was brief. 

Already the Saracenic warriors under able leaders 
had overrun Persia and Syria, and in 637 Omar, their 
Caliph, after a four months' siege, received the keys and 
homage of a city, which, though the home of many 
Christians, was very sacred also in the eyes of the Mo- 
hammedans, as a " House of God," a city of saints and 
miracles, since Mohammed himself had visited it as a 
prophet and had thence set out for heaven in his noc- 
turnal voyage. Daring the lifetime of Omar, the Chris- 
tians escaped serious persecution, but violence and fa- 
naticism increased at a fearful rate under his successors 
— except for the period (768-S14 A. D.) during which 



76 THE STORY OF THE FTRST CRUSADE. 

reigned Haroun al Raschid, the greatest of all the Sara- 
cen Caliphs. 

In 1076 — fateful day — Jerusalem was captured by the 
Seljukian Turks who had come down from the inner 
provinces of Asia in resistless numbers — embraced Is- 
lamism, and under the banners of the Caliph of Bagdad, 
had conquered Syria and Palestine. Their entry into 
Jerusalem was signalized by a terrible massacre of all 
opponents. The fanatical fury of these barbarians was 
untempered by any spirit of toleration that had some- 
times marked Saracenic civilization, — and soon their 
wild hordes waved their banners of blood and fire before 
the very gates of Constantinople. The Emperor Alex- 
ius purchased peace by ceding Asia Minor to the vic- 
torious Solyman, who at once established his power at 
Nice and began building a fleet for the capture of the 
Byzantine capital. 

All Europe was roused and smitten with alarm. The 
hour had come for the Greek and the Latin churches 
to unite all their power for the defence of their com- 
mon faith and preserve their empires from being dev- 
astated by the barbarian Turks. 

Pope Gregory began to exhort the sovereigns of 
Europe to arm against the infidel : when suddenly 
from an anchorite's cell appeared a monk who fired 
with enthusiasm the heart of all Europe and blew into 
fiercest blaze all the fanatical elements of a religious 
war. It was reserved for a poor pilgrim who had found 
refuge in a cloister from the ridicule and follies of a 
wicked world to become the instrument of converting 
the zeal of pilgrimage into the fury of an armed cru- 
sade. This man was Peter the Hermit. 

In his cell, amid silence, fasting and prayer he grew 



THE STORY OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. 77 

to believe himself the agent of heaven for the accom- 
plishment of some great purpose, and he left his retreat 
to go on a pilgrimage. What he witnessed and suf- 
fered on the way and at Jerusalem gave to his zeal 
fresh determination and to his devotion the fervor of 
righteous indignation. His spirit was fired by the in- 
sults to Christians, his piety shocked by the profana- 
tions of the Holy Sepulchre by the barbarians and in- 
fidels. To his fevered imagination as to that of Joan 
of Arc there was a vision and a voice. While pros- 
trate before the Holy Sepulchre the voice of Christ 
was heard, saying : " Peter, arise, hasten to proclaim 
the tribulation of my people ; it is time my servants 
should receive help, and that the holy places should be 
delivered." He hastened to Italy and threw himself 
at the feet of the Pope, Urban II. 

With the blessing of the Pope he went forth, the 
preacher of an armed crusade. In imitation of 
Christ, when he entered Jerusalem in that last week 
of his life, he traveled on a mule. With crucifix in 
hand, feet bare, his head uncovered, his body covered 
with a long frock and girded with a thick cord, his ap- 
pearance was an awesome spectacle. He went from 
city to city, from province to province, working on the 
piety, the superstitions and the courage of his hearers ; 
now in churches, then in village marts and again on 
the public highways. He was animated and eloquent, 
his speech filled with vehement apostrophes and appall- 
ing descriptions. His exhortations threw the people 
into sobs and groans, fury and frenzy. Sympathy with 
the afflicted Christians took the form of furious fervor, 
natural bravery went out in oaths to redeem or die ; 
religious emotions ran wild in excesses and swung like 



78 THE STORY OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. 

a pendulum from the lowest follies of superstition to 
the fiercest outbursts of fanaticism. 

It was during this excitement that the Emperor 
Alexius sent a message to Pope Urban II., appealing 
for aid. A council was called at Clermont in France 
where Peter's preaching had caused the greatest awak- 
ening. The Pope attended in person, about him gath- 
ered an immense throng of clergy, princes and laity, 
from France, Italy and Germany. At the tenth session 
of this council the Pope ascended a pulpit in the open 
air and preached the sacred duty of redeeming the 
Sepulchre of Christ from the infidels, proclaiming the 
certain propitiation for sin by devotion to this merito- 
rious service. 

This historic council was most ingeniously called and 
managed. The Germanic peoples were new and eager 
converts to Christianity. They were fierce and warlike 
in disposition. Feudalism still was in its fullest power. 
The hundreds of castles which add such picturesque- 
ness to the valley of the Rhine were then the centers of 
feudal pride, and every petty Prince made war as he was 
able against his neighbor, or joined with others in wars 
of larger proportions. There was no national spirit as 
yet. These feuds which had been handed down for 
generations, had greatly impoverished and destroyed the 
people. The Church had sought to alleviate the distress 
and check these petty wars, by issuing decrees prohibit- 
ing private wars for four days in each week. This coun- 
cil renewed " The Truce of God," and threatened all 
who would not comply, with its Anathemas. It placed 
all widows, orphans, merchants, artisans and non-combat- 
ants generally under the panoply of the Church — made 
all sanctuaries so many cities of refuge, and declared 



THE STORY OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. 



79 



that even the crosses by the roadside should be rev- 
erenced as guardians from violence. These and other 
salutary decrees struck into the midst of an assembly 
filled with enthusiasm and energy, and prepared the 
way for them to unite in any cause that would add to 
the strength and glory of Christendom. On this day 
of the tenth session the great square was filled with an 
immense crowd. The Pope ascended the throne fol- 
lowed by his Cardinals. By his side was Peter the 
Hermit, who was to speak first, clad in his pilgrim garb. 
He gave an impassioned and masterly sketch of what 
he had witnessed in Palestine and Jerusalem — the out- 
rages against the religion of Christ, and the profanation 
of the most holy places, the persecutions of pilgrim visi- 
tors whom he had seen loaded with chains, dragged into 
slavery; harnessed to the yoke like cattle. And as he 
spoke he also acted, until the people shuddered in con- 
sternation and horror, vented their hate in vehement 
cries or wept in dismay — no heart remaining unmoved 
by the very agony of his appeal. 

Then Urban rose and so enlarged upon the theme 
as to arouse and inflame their passions to the highest 
pitch ; then addressing particularly the French he said : 
" Nation beloved by God, it is in your courage that the 
Christian Church has placed her hope. It is because I 
am well acquainted with your piety and your bravery 
that I have crossed the Alps, and have come to preach 
the word of God in these countries. You have not for- 
gotten that the land you inhabit has been invaded by 
the Saracen, and that but for the exploits of Charles 
Martel and Charlemagne, France would have received 
the laws of Mohammed. Recall, without ceasing, to your 
minds the danger and the glory of your fathers, led by 



80 THE STORY OF THE FIRST CRUSADE 

heroes whose names shall never die. They delivered 
your country. They saved the West from shameful 
slavery. More noble triumphs await you under the 
guidance of the God of Armies. You will deliver 
Europe and Asia. You will save the city of Jesus 
Christ, that Jerusalem which was chosen by the Lord, 
and from whence the Gospel has come down to us." 

Urban swayed his audience as a wind does the leaves 
of the forest. It wept as he pictured the misfortunes 
and sorrows of Jerusalem. Warriors clutched their 
swords and swore vengeance against the Infidel when 
he described the tyranny and perfidy of the Mussul- 
man conquerors. The enthusiasm of his auditors rose 
to the highest pitch, when he declared that God had 
chosen them to extirpate the Mohammedan. He ap- 
pealed also to their cupidity by the promise of worldly 
gain, by possession of the riches of Asia and the lands 
which according to Scripture flowed with milk and 
honey. He played on every passion and emotion — am- 
bition, patriotism, love of glory and wealth, piety, 
power and religion : — until at the close of his grandest 
outbursts the audience rose as one man and broke into 
the unanimous cry — a cry that became the war cry of 
the crusader — "It is the will of God! It is the will of 
God ! " 

Taking up this wild refrain Pope Urban repeated 
dramatically: "Yes, without doubt it is the will of 
God" * * * It is He who has dictated to you the 
words that I have heard. Let them be your war cry 
and let them announce everywhere the presence of the 
" Armies of God." He then held up to the gaze of the 
assemblage the sign of their redemption, saying: "It is 
Christ himself who issues from the tomb and presents 



THE STORY OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. 81 

to you his cross ; it will be the sign raised among 
the nations which is to gather together again the dis- 
persed of Israel. Wear it on your shoulders and on 
your breasts ; let it shine on your arms and on your 
standards ; it will be the surety of victory or the palm 
of martyrdom ; it will unceasingly remind you that 
Christ died for you, and that it is your duty to die for 
Him." Again the multitude rose to weep and cheer 
and vow vengeance against the Mussulman. 

I have dwelt thus on the Council of Clermont, and 
quoted from the speech of Pope Urban, that the reader 
might see clearly the mixed motives that stirred the 
heart of Europe for nearly two centuries, and nerved 
her warriors to the most noble, heroic and almost super- 
human deeds of valor and endurance that have ever 
been emblazoned among the memorials of the mightiest 
heroes of this mortal race. 

This was the declaration of war against the Moham- 
medan. The breaking up of the Council was the scat- 
tering of the firebrands of fanaticism. Pope Urban 
traversed several provinces of France that seemed to 
rise en masse to his appeals. France seemed to have 
no country but the Holy Land. Ease, property and 
life were cast into the sacrificial cause. All Christian - 
nations seemed to forget their internal strifes, and to 
plunge headlong into the excitement of the hour. 
Western Europe resounded with the Papal Watchword : 
" He who will not take up his cross and come after me, 
is not worthy of me." 

It must not be forgotten, however, that the political 
and physical condition of Europe contributed vastly to 
the warlike conflagration. The people groaned under 
feudal servitude and violence. Famine more or less 



yj* THE STORY OP THE FIRST CRUSADE. 

severe, for years had contributed to robbery. and brig- 
andage. Commerce was almost destroyed, agriculture 
was neglected. Towns and cities were in ruins ; lands 
everywhere were abandoned. The Church made her 
appeals popular. The Crusader was freed from all im- 
posts and from pursuit by debts. The Cross suspended 
all laws and all menaces. Tyranny could not seek a 
wearer of the emblem nor could justice find the guilty. 
What wonder that an entire population rushed to a 
cause that absolved them from a grinding past and pic- 
tured so glowing a future ! What wonder that the in- 
expiable wickedness of tyrannical baron and brutal 
knight sought expiation or at least relief by a desperate 
plunge into foreign martial excesses ! What wonder if 
freebooters and robbers should join the ranks in hope 
of sharing the plunder of the conquered East ! Yet we 
must not lose sight of the fact that over and above all 
love of glory, all true patriotism or base cupidity, towered 
the sublime passion, the pervading emotion of the hour. 
Religion smelted every other sentiment into harmonious 
union with her fervid zeal and her intense zealotiw. 
Monks deserted their cloisters, anchorites their cells or 
forest retreats to mingle with and encourage the cru- 
sading throngs. Thieves and robbers came out of their 
hiding places to confess their sins and expiate offences 
by assuming the sacred badge. 

All Europe seemed to be on the move eastward. 
Barons were willing to desert their castles and 
Lords their manors. The artisan deserted his shop, 
merchants their stores, the laborer the field. Cities 
were depopulated, lands were mortgaged, castles 
sold. Values were nothing. Accumulations of cen- 
turies went for a song. Even miracles entered into the 



THE STORY OP THE FIRST CRUSADE. 83 

furore. To their overheated imaginations stars fell ; 
blood was seen in the clouds. Armed warriors were 
seen rushing to battle in the skies. Saints issued from 
the tomb, and the shade of Charlemagne arose to lead 
these phantom hosts to the rescue of the Holy City. 
While everywhere the women and children and the 
helpless of every estate espoused the cause of Heaven 
crying aloud, " It is the will of God," and imprinting 
crosses on their limbs. 

The early spring of 1096 saw the gathering of the 
impatient throngs. They came from every quarter, 
from the Rhine to the Pyrenees, and from Tiber to the 
Ocean. Troops of men, armed with every conceivable 
weapon or without arms of any kind, swarmed towards 
their respective rendezvous chanting and shouting their 
war cry until every hill reechoed " It is the will of 
God." Without preparation or forethought or commis- 
sary they gathered, blindly trusting that He who fed 
the sparrows would not suffer them to hunger. There 
was no voice of reason in all this surging multitude. 
It was a spectacle without a parallel in history. There 
is no way of computing the vast aggregate, but the 
French historian, Carnot, estimates that five billion en- 
thusiasts were on the move in the spring of 1096. This 
certainly is most extravagant hyperbole, but all West- 
ern Europe was fiercely agitated and vast multitudes 
were on the march. 

THE CRUSADE OF THE MOB. 

Their story is but a harrowing recital of a tumul- 
tuous and reckless march through an unknown country 
by a starving horde of men, women and children. Pil- 
lage, rapine and blood marked their way. For a time 



84 THE STORY OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. 

in Germany the people were kindly disposed and 
brought them food. Fortunately for the mob Hungary 
had but recently embraced Christianity and its King, 
Carloman, gave it a friendly passage through his do- 
mains : but when it struck Bulgaria its struggles and 
sorrows began. They were forced to pillage to keep 
from starvation. Religion was laid aside. Hunger 
knew no law stronger than that of self-preservation. 
The Bulgarians flew to arms and inflicted great losses 
on the undisciplined and helpless crowd of beggars. 
At last that part of the throng led by Walter the 
Penniless, arrived under the walls of Constantinople 
and there were allowed by the Emperor to await the 
coming of Peter the Hermit. Alas ! the excesses of his 
hosts led to still more terrible assaults while passing 
through Hungary and Bulgaria. At Nissa they en- 
deavored to scale the ramparts and a terrific battle 
ensued in which the Crusaders were cut to pieces. 
Women, children, horses, camp and trophy chests, all 
fell a prey to the infuriated Bulgarians. 

In August, Peter the Hermit appeared under the 
walls of Constantinople with about seven thousand sol- 
diers and camp followers to recruit his wasted energies 
in the camp of Walter the Penniless while waiting for 
other and better armed and disciplined forces to arrive. 
From the banks of the Rhine, from Flanders, and even- 
from Britain an army largely composed of the. refuse of 
mankind, two hundred thousand strong, started on its 
march — but soon gave themselves to unheard-of bar 
barities. How much worse than a Mohammedan was a 
member of that hated race which had crucified the 
Christ and so they let loose their fury against the de- 
fenseless Jews in most pitiless massacres, sweeping on 



THE STORY OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. 85 

into Hungary, to the city of Mersburg, which shut its 
gates and refused them provisions. Forests were cut 
down, causeways built across the swamps which par- 
tially protected the walls and a furious assault was 
made upon the city. The battle raged fiercely and for 
a long time with doubtful result, but at last the scaling 
ladders of the Crusaders began to give way, and then 
fell dragging down their occupants and fragments of 
the walls and towers. These disasters carried panic 
into the army of the besiegers and they fled into the 
forests, were caught in the swamps and were ruthlessly 
slaughtered. Few of the desperate and cruel adven- 
turers escaped. Some found the way back to their 
own country covered with disgrace — a few more made 
their way to the army of Peter the Hermit encamped 
before Constantinople. 

Thus far this fanatical spirit had cost Western 
Europe the lives of nearly a quarter of a million peo- 
ple, and not a Saracen had been seen. But the motley 
crowd encamped on the Bosphorus augmented by ad- 
venturers from Italian cities had gradually increased 
until now it probably numbered one hundred thousand 
all told. They were scarcely more welcome than the 
Saracens to the Emperor Alexius who had treated 
them as guests and supplied their famished hosts. 
Their desire for plunder could not long be restrained, 
and the churches, houses and palaces in the suburbs 
fell a prey to their rapacity which was as insatiable as 
the cry for blood that rises from a pack of ravening 
wolves. Alexius was therefore very glad to furnish 
them with transportation across the Bosphorus. They 
were now on Asiatic soil an undisciplined and motley 
crowd in the face of the well armed and equally furious 



86 THE STORY OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. 

and fanatical Turk. They revelled in the pillage of 
the fertile plains of Nicomedia, dividing the booty at 
night in their camps. They plundered the valley, 
ravaged and burned the villages and committed most 
horrible excesses ; they captured a small fort near the 
mountains from the Turks and massacred the garrison. 
The Turks reinforced, fell upon them in turn, and put 
nearly all of them to the sword. This roused the 
anger of the mixed crowds in camp. Nothing could 
"restrain the blind fury of the soldier mob. They 
chased the apparently flying columns of the Turks into 
the mountains of an unknown country and fell into the 
ambush laid for them. In vain their courage, their de- 
spair. The carnage was horrible. Only three thousand 
escaped. The entire crusading army perished in this 
single battle and only their bleaching bones remained 
as a ghastly monument pointing out to other crusaders 
the way to the Holy Land. 

Europe learned with astonishment and horror of the 
sad fate of over three hundred thousand soldiers who 
had departed amid the promises and the blessings of 
the church. Their misfortune, however, did not deter 
others, but seemed only to inspire them with resolution ; 
their disasters furnished a warning to the better regu- 
lated and more formidable hosts which were to pour 
into the East from the now thoroughly aroused West. 

THE CRUSADE OF KINGS AND NOBLES. 

The verdict of candid history is that the rabble 
which started in obedience to a popular ferment and 
perished as a miserable crowd of crazed humanity, de- 
served the fate they invited ; for the world had never 
witnessed a mure pitiable exhibition of demoniacal 



THE STOEY OF THE FIRST CEUSADE. 87 

fanaticism and flagrant violence than was shown by 
these lawless crowds who followed the cry of Peter 
the Hermit. They achieved nothing heroic ; but their 
disasters taught Europe that to conquer Jerusalem 
would be no holiday work. 

The Princes and Nobles of Germany, France and. 
Britain now organized for war. While deliverance of 
Jerusalem was the popular cry and religious zeal fired 
the heart of all classes, the powers recognized the fact 
that the battles to be fought and won were for the pres- 
ervation of their very existence. 

You may call it organized infatuation and mailed 
folly, yet it was a splendid spectacle. Its spiritual 
zeal gave a silver lining to its superstitions. Its mar- 
tial fame modified its brutality. Amid fearful excesses 
there was a show of prudence ; and although you may 
impeach the justice of their cause, their magnanimous 
devotion of spirit and fearless heroism must always 
command a large share of sympathy and. admiration, 
and make the Story of the Crusades the most thrill- 
ing of all the chapters in the history of the Middle 
Ages. 

Plistory and poetry place Godfrey de Bouillon, Duke 
of Lower Lorraine, at the head of the great captains 
that led the flower of all chivalry on its desperate 
venture. He was a descendant of the great Charle- 
magne. To natural bravery he added herculean 
strength. He was devout, prudent and humane. All 
his vengeance was for the enemies of Christ. He was 
generous, faithful to his word — a model knight and 
soldier. When he gave the signal, the nobility of 
France and the Rhine borders opened their purses and 
flocked . to his standards. Women sold their jewels to 



88 THE STORY OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. 

equip husbands and sons for service. Men sacrificed 
their domains for horses and arms. Godfrey himself 
sacrificed his estates that he might equip his soldiers, 
and a worldly Bishop eagerly took advantage of his 
zeal by purchasing his vast domains. Within eight 
months of the Council of Clermont, Godfrey had gath- 
ered an army of eighty thousand footmen and ten 
thousand horse. With him were a great number of 
nobles whose names became famous, beside his brother 
Baldwin and his cousin Baldwin de Bourg who were 
destined like himself to become Kings of Jerusalem. 
Whether actuated by piety or the hope of achieving 
fortune, they all quitted without regret their mean 
possessions and tame life in Europe. 

They led an immense army used to marches and bat- 
tles. Their admirable discipline and self-restraint re- 
established the honor of the Crusaders and drew allies 
and champions of the cross where Peter had met his 
worst enemies, and the hostile Hungarians and Bul- 
garians forgot their hatred for the leaders of the Mob 
in their admiration for Godfrey and his chivalric 
knights. 

We must not neglect to mention the names of four 
chiefs who accompanied by throngs of lesser knights 
and nobles, crossed the Alps and marched towards 
the different coast cities of Italy intending to embark 
for Greece by water. Count Hugh, brother of Philip 
I. of France, a proud prince, brave in battle, but lack- 
ing perseverance under reverses : Robert, Duke of 
Normandy, eldest son of William the Conqueror, who 
pledged his domains to his crafty brother, William 
Rufus, that he might equip his Norman vassals. Rob- 
ert, of Flanders, whose father some time before had 



THE STORY OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. 89 

made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, found it an easy task 
to attract a large and resolute following and exhausted 
the treasures of his province in arming his men for an 
expedition, which was to earn for him the reputation 
of a brave knight and the surname of " Lance and 
Sword of the Christians." Five hundred of his men 
had already preceded him to Constantinople. Then 
Stephen of Blois and Chartres, whose castles numbered 
one for every day in the year, and who was reckoned 
one of the richest nobles of his time, took up the cross 
and led a large body of his retainers ;- — he, though lack- 
ing in physical strength, was eloquent and wise in 
council and enjoyed the exceptional distinction of 
being a man of letters. For the most part these 
chiefs and many men of lesser rank took with them 
their wives and children and camp equipments. Pass- 
ing through Italy they roused the enthusiasm of 
the noble Bohemond, Prince of Tarentum, who was a 
cubit taller than the tallest soldier in his army. The 
historian of Constantinople and the Empire of the 
East, Anna Comnera, says that he was as astonishing 
to the eye as his reputation was to the mind. He was 
eloquent in debate, skilled with sword and lance. He 
was proud and haughty. Fear of God, the opinions of 
men, nor his own oaths afforded him no restraint. His 
enlistment under the banner of the cross was not for 
the purpose of delivering the tomb of Christ, but be- 
cause he had sworn eternal enmity against Alexius and 
the Empire of the East. He hoped to win a kingdom 
long before reaching Jerusalem. In a surprising^ 
short time he sailed for the coasts of Greece with 
twenty thousand footmen and ten thousand horse, fol- 
lowed by every renowned knight of Apulia and Sicily. 



90 THE STORY OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. 

None of them however became so celebrated for deeds 
of prowess as the brave Tancred, who has found a place 
in history and poetry and who seems to have been ac- 
tuated by the loftiest sentiments of piety, chivalric 
honor and loyal friendship for his leader. From the 
southern provinces of France under the leadership of 
Raymond of Toulouse and Bishop Adhemar, who was 
as valorous in the field as he was eloquent in prayer, 
came another army one hundred thousand strong, 
marching eastward along the south side of the Alps 
and through northern Italy by way of Dalmatia, to 
Constantinople. 

And now that all Europe seemed pouring into the 
empire and capital of Alexius, the Emperor began to 
be alarmed. He had not forgotten the excesses of the 
first swarm of Crusaders. Should these multitudes 
now sweeping into and through his domains choose to 
do so, they could speedily wrest his sovereignty from 
him and find riches and dominion far easier than in re- 
mote and hostile Asia. We have no time to dwell 
upon the intrigues and treachery that marked his deal- 
ings with these mighty leaders of the Crusaders. More 
than once the forces of Godfrey aud Alexius were 
called to arms with the fate of Constantinople hanging 
in almost even balance. Finally a truce was made and 
the Emperor sent his son as a hostage to the Camp of 
the Crusaders. This dissipated all mistrust and the 
princes of the West swore to respect the laws of hospi- 
tality. They went in a body to the court of Alexius, 
where they bent before his throne and were magnifi- 
cently received. After an imposing ceremony the 
now graciously disposed Emperor adopted Godfrey as 
a son, placed the Empire under his protection, promis- 



THE STORY OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. 93 

ing aid to the Crusaders by land and sea, provisions for 
their marches and the countenance of his leadership in 
glory or defeat. 

But every day brought its hosts of Crusaders and 
magnificent presents must be given to all the leaders, 
and his profuse liberality was a heavy drain on his 
royal treasuries. His security now lay in keeping the 
armies in motion and hurrying them across the Bos- 
phorus ; and once in Asia their leaders would be en- 
grossed in preparing to meet the Saracens and his cap- 
ital would for a time be free from insult and the un- 
welcome presence of his mortal foe Bohemond who, 
struck with the riches of the apartments assigned him, 
exclaimed : " There is enough here to conquer king- 
doms with." 

And now the plains of Bythinia were fast filling with 
the warrior hordes of Europe and as they swept along 
seeking safe camping places they came to the foot of 
the mountains where Walter the Penniless and his en- 
tire army perished in battle. The painful reminder 
of so great a calamity, and the recital by the starved 
remnants of Peter's army found hiding in the moun- 
tains of their fearful sufferings, hushed all discord, 
silenced ambition and inspired fresh zeal for the con- 
quest of the Holy City and the destruction of the fierce, 
cruel and equally fanatical Turks who swarmed in the 
valleys and filled the walled cities of Palestine with 
desperate garrisons. 

But the first battle of invasion must be fought at the 
very gateway to Asia Minor. The chief of the Infidel 
forces was the son of Solyman ; his name was David, 
surnamed Kilidge Arslan, or " The Sword of the Lion." 
He called upon the defenders of Islam to rally to his 
6 



94 THE STORY OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. 

standard and they came in troops from all the surround- 
ing provinces and even from distant Persia. The cap- 
ital of his kingdom was Nicea (Nice). It was the ad- 
vanced post of the Turks in Asia Minor and there they 
would concentrate for the later invasion of Europe. 
Its approaches were defended by high mountains. Its 
walls, surrounded by large water-filled ditches, were 
wide enough for the passage of chariots and were 
crowned by three hundred and seventy towers of brick. 
Its garrison was composed of the finest troops of the 
Turkish army ; and one hundred thousand men were 
encamped for its defence upon the neighboring moun- 
tains. 

Infatuated with their cause, blind in their faith, de- 
spising the martial quality of the enemy, and appar- 
ently ignorant of the careful and crafty preparations 
made to receive them, the Crusaders marched in mag- 
nificently terrible swarms over the Bythinian plains to- 
wards Nice ; with a force of one hundred thousand 
horse and five hundred thousand footmen among whom 
were a large per cent, of women and children and inef- 
fectives. It was the chivalry of Europe come out to 
dispute with the Infidel the possession of Asia. The 
sight of this immense army as the Turks gazed upon it 
from their mountain tops must have thrilled their 
hearts even if it did not carry terror to their camps. 
It was soon learned that Nice could only be captured 
by siege, if at all. For this preparations began to be 
made ; but there was no central authority. In the 
camps of the Crusaders were nineteen different nation- 
alities grouped about their respective standards. No 
count or prince would deign to receive orders from 
anyone. Each camp was protected by walls or pali- 



THE STORY OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. 95 

sades, and as the supply of wood. and stone was scarce 
they gathered up the bones of the first Crusaders that 
lay bleaching on the plains. The priests in all these 
various camps were always in the ranks and so great 
was their power that the commonest soldier gladly 
courted death for the sake of the rewards in store for 
all who perished in battle with the Infidel. 

At the same time David, "The Sword of the Lion " 
animated his garrison by recalling former victories and 
saying : " We are going to fight for our wives and chil- 
dren and country. The religion of the Prophet im- 
plores our help, and the richest booty will reward our 
exploits." While for every Turk that fell in battle the 
gates of Paradise would open and the most beautiful 
Houris would minister with wine and dance to the un- 
limited enjoyment of the faithful. The rewards of the 
future, though so different to the imagination of the 
followers of Christ and of Mohammed, had precisely the 
same effect in stimulating the courage of all alike to the 
same pitch of frenzied fanaticism — the utter contempt 
of all danger, and to the very courting of death itself 
in the destruction of their enemies. 

As the Crusaders advanced, their siege operations 
animated by the boldness of their leaders, the Turks, 
similarly cheered and as bravely led, descended from 
their mountain camps and prepared for battle. Their 
army divided into two great bodies as they struck the 
plains. One of these fell on the army of Godfrey, and 
the other on that of Ra} 7 mond of Toulouse. At first 
the troops of Raymond gave way to the fierce onset 
but were soon rallied by the voices and bugles of Ray- 
mond and Adhemar. Matthew of Edessa writes : — 
" The two armies joined, mingled and attacked each 



96 THE STORY OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. 

other with equal fury. Everywhere glittered casques 
and shields ; lances rang against cuirasses ; the air re- 
sounded with piercing cries; the terrified horses re- 
coiled from din of arms and the hissing of arrows ; the 
earth trembled beneath the tread of the combatants, 
and the plain was for a vast space bristling with jave- 
lins." The Crusaders were most valiantly led by God- 
frey, Tancred and the two Roberts whose steeds seemed 
to be everywhere, whose valor knew no abatement and 
whose lances carried terror and death into the ranks of 
the Infidels. It was a disastrous day for the Turkish 
forces that were driven back in greatest confusion into 
their mountain camps. But the Sultan did not stop to 
deplore his defeat. He rallied his forces during the 
night and determined to avenge his disgrace on the 
morrow. At break of clay again his troops rushed with 
the violence of mountain torrents into the plains, and 
with loudest cries dashed again and again into the ser- 
ried ranks of the Crusaders. All day long under 
charge and counter charge the result of the battle hung 
in doubt. Not till night did the Turks confess their 
inability to crush the battle lines of the Christians by 
retiring from the scene of awful carnage, leaving four 
thousand prisoners in the hands of the victors. The 
next day the heads of one thousand were cut off and 
sent as trophies to Alexius at Constantinople ; the 
heads of the remaining captives were thrown by ma- 
chines over the walls of the city to inform the Turkish 
garrison of the disaster which had overtaken their sup- 
porting army. 

The Crusaders were now free to push forward the 
siege by every artifice known to the Romans and 
directed by the skill and energy of the Greeks. They 



THE STORY OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. 97 

flowed the garrison no rest, and the defence was as 
furious as the attack. The Turks covered their ram- 
parts with formidable weapons which hurled destruc- 
tion on their assailants. They shot forth darts, wooden 
beams and enormous stones which daily destroyed the 
labor of the Crusaders whose rashness and imprudence 
cost them many precious lives. Hundreds died from 
poisoned darts, and others, venturing too near the walls, 
were caught by grappling hooks, dragged alive over the 
walls to be shot back, stark naked, into the Christian 
camp. The tales of personal, single-handed prowess 
place Christian and Turkish chief on equal footing as 
to strength, courage and splendid daring. 

After seven weeks had passed all hope for successful 
defence departed. The wife of the Sultan and her two 
children were captured in trying to escape, and conster- 
nation siezed the garrison. Just at this crisis the em- 
issaries of Alexius entered the city, and by creating in 
the inhabitants a dread of the terrible vengeance that 
would be inflicted by the Crusaders, persuaded them to 
surrender to the Emperor of Constantinople. 

While the Crusaders were preparing for what was 
intended to be their final assault, the standard of 
Alexius suddenly appeared on the ramparts. The wily 
Emperor had secured without the loss of a man the 
fruits of a victory won at terrible cost of life to the 
Crusaders. He succeeded in quieting the wrath of the 
soldiers by distributing among them largesses equal in 
extent to the booty they expected from the looting of 
the captured city. He also restored to the Sultan his 
wife and children, and thereby won his friendship. He 
also by this crafty stroke of policy secured the lives of 
the Greek Christians scattered throughout the cities of 



98 THE STORY OE THE FIRST CRUSADE. 

Asia Minor; but won the lasting hatred of the Cru- 
saders. 

The siege of one city is like the siege of all, and we 
must hasten to Jerusalem, in the spring of 1097. Pass- 
ing by the battlefield of Dorylaeum, where the newly 
gathered army of David, the Sultan, numbering two 
hundred thousand men, met with an awful defeat and 
the loss of nearly twenty-five thousand men ; all the 
treasures of his camp, provisions, tents, horses and 
camels, and riches of gold and silver, falling as spoil 
into the hands of the Crusaders : — passing by the ter- 
rible march through "Burning Phrygia," desolated by 
order of the Sultan, we descend through the mountain 
passes of the Taurus range into the fair and fertile and 
wealthy plains of the province of Antioch. The armies 
were soon gathered for the siege of this historic city, 
which lasted seven months and was finally captured 
through the assistance of an Armenian within the walls. 

Six months after the sack of the city of Antioch, the 
word was given, "On to Jerusalem." 

It was now about the first of June. The harvests of 
Phoenicia were ripe, plenty of provisions were in sight, 
and the country was beautiful as they marched down 
the seacoast from Antioch. To their left rose the 
mountains of Lebanon. On their right the blue waters 
of the Mediterranean flashed in the sunlight of an east- 
ern sky. Between mountain and sea the valleys and 
plains were filled with orchards of olive, orange and 
pomegranate. Among the plants which were new to 
the Crusaders was the sugar cane of the Syrian low- 
lands. Returning pilgrims carried this plant to Italy ; 
the Saracens introduced it into Grenada, whence it 
spread throughout all the Spanish colonial possessions; 



THE STORY OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. 99 

and to-day is the basis of the wealth of Cuba, and one 
of the chief productions of our own Southern States. 

The Crusaders marched amid plenty and under balmy 
skies, with time enough to contemplate the fearful sac- 
rifice of human life which their expedition had already 
cost. Battle and famine, disease and despair had cut 
off more than two hundred thousand of their number. 
Tens of thousands had deserted and returned to Europe ; 
other thousands remained in the cities and villages of 
Palestine and were lost in the mixed crowds of the 
native races. While yet a vast host, the fighting force 
was about fifty thousand, but it was a compact and 
vigorous body of warriors. It marched better and 
lighter. Its victories gave it courage ; its defeats had 
taught it the value of discipline. The names of Cru- 
sader and Christian carried terror wherever spoken in 
the Infidel camps or cities. Their zeal increased as 
they drew near the end of their long and wasting 
marches. Often the weary columns refused to halt for 
the night, but tramped on until forced to rest by sheer 
fatigue. To their disordered vision luminous angels 
appeared to guide them on the way. 

Bending away from the sea and passing Lydda, they 
soon gained the Heights of Ephraim, only sixteen miles 
from Jerusalem. Here their ranks were broken up as 
they entered these jagged ravines and narrow, lonesome 
valleys scorched by the rays of a summer sun, riddled 
by gullies and choked by great fragments of rock 
fallen from the precipitous sides of the mountains. 
Had they been attacked from the heights above by 
even a few resolute Mussulmen while in such dis- 
order, fearful loss might have been inflicted ; but no 
enemy appeared as the more ardent and faithful souls 



100 THE STORY OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. 

advanced barefooted, carrying with them the banner of 
the Prince of Peace to plant on the recaptured walls of 
the Holy City of God. 

On June 10th, 1099, the Crusaders marched up the 
gloomy steeps to Emmaus, and looking over its barren 
edges caught their first sight of Zion. The cry of 
"Jerusalem, Jerusalem," rang out and down the slopes, 
and as the rear columns came up the war cry " It is the 
will of God," resounded throughout the whole army 
until reechoed by the slopes of the Mount of Olives and 
heard in the City of David. Horsemen dismounted and 
walked barefoot, thousands bent their knees and kissed 
the earth. Hallelujahs arose, petitions went up for the 
remission of their sins, tears were shed over the death 
of Christ, and the profanation of His tomb. Pious 
fervor soon changed into fierceness and wrath as oaths 
were resworn to rescue the Holy City from the 
sacrilegious hands of the followers of Mohammed. 

They found a fierce -and valiant memory awaiting 
them. The surrounding villages had been destroyed, 
cisterns and wells filled up or poisoned, the land made 
a desert. 

The siege began at once ; but their situation grew 
desperate. They were suffering under a scorching 
heat and the sand storms out of the southern deserts. 
Plants and animals perished. Kedron ran dry. The 
army became a prey to raging thirst. Water brought 
in skin bottles a distance of nine miles was worth its 
weight in silver. The old historians paint in most 
frightful colors the misery of the Crusaders at this 
juncture ; and had the Mussulmen made a determined 
sortie upon the staggering hosts, the army must have 
perished. Their strength and courage revived by 



THE STORY OP THE FIRST CRUSADE. 101 

the arrival of a Genoese fleet at Jaffa laden with pro- 
visions. A Syrian pointed ont a mountain thirty miles 
away that was forest-clad. Everybody wrought with 
unceasing energy. Water was brought long distances 
by the women and children ; machines of war towers, 
catapults and battering rams were erected and pushed 
up close under the walls of Jerusalem. 

The priests exhorted to peace and harmony. The 
hermit of the Mount of Olives led a penitential march 
around the city. On their return to camp as the 
Christian army marched by the tomb of David, and 
Mt. Zion they chanted " The nations of the West shall 
fear the Lord ; and the nations of the East shall see His 
glory." 

On the morning of July 14, 1099, all the Crusaders 
flew to arms at the sound of the trumpets to make their 
first grand assault. 

The great war machines were pushed close to the 
walls. Showers of stones were hurled upon the ram- 
parts. Archers and crossbowmen kept up a continual 
fire from their towers. Scaling ladders were planted. 
The great leaders were everywhere. For twelve long 
hours the Crusaders maintained the unequal fight, and 
then nightfall covered their first repulse. The morn- 
ing saw the renewal of the conflict more furious and 
desperate than before. It was carried on with de- 
moniac obstinacy for half a day. Their courage began 
to fail; nearly all their machines were on fire and 
there was no water to quench the flames; even their 
leaders began to waver. 

While the battle was in this desperate shape a mysteri- 
ous knight made his appearance on the Mount of Olives 
waving his sword and signalling them to renew the 



102 THE STORY OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. 

assault. They accepted the omen as from heaven and 
in the fury of their faith rushed again to the attack — 
dragged their machines still nearer the walls, caught 
them with their grappling hooks, lowered their draw- 
bridges, let fly showers of flaming arrows which set on 
fire sacks of wool and bundles of hay that had been 
used for protection on the inner walls. The wind 
fanned the flames, driving smoke and heat upon the 
doomed Saracens. The Crusaders sprang upon tlfe 
walls with lance and spear in hand. Godfrey, Baldwin, 
Raymond and Tancred followed by their knights and 
soldiers were soon in the streets and beating down the 
gates with their battle-axes opened the way for the 
great body of Crusaders to enter. Their battle cry 
rang through the streets of the Holy City. 

The miracle-monger places the entry of the Crusaders 
at the very hour Friday, 3 P. M., at which Christ ex- 
pired on the cross. But even this could not move their 
hearts to mercy. We throw a veil of silence over 
the awful massacre that followed, until Godfrey 
throwing aside his arms walked barefooted to the 
church of the Holy Sepulchre. His example was 
contagious. The army ceased its bloody fury, cast 
aside its blood-stained vestments, gave vent to its 
contrition in groans and sobs, and marched with un- 
covered heads and bare feet following their priests 
to the Church of the Resurrection. We marvel at the 
sudden transformation. The devotion of the Crusaders 
seemed profoundly tender after such horrible carnage. 
We do not excuse it. We do not condemn it in bitter 
speech recalling some terrible experiences during our 
late Civil War, when Christian men sometimes 
seemed possessed. The demon of war has never yet 



THE STORY OP THE FIRST CRUSADE. 103 

been baptized with the Spirit of Him who gave up His 
life for the salvation of the very men who crucified 
Him. 

The last chapter in the history of this first Crusade 
ends with the establishment of a kingdom of Jerusalem 
and the selection of the pious Godfrey as King. With 
its fortunes we may not here concern ourselves. We 
shall touch upon it as we sketch the resistless march of 
the warriors of Islam to the conquest of Constantinople 
and the overthrow of the Empire of Eastern Europe. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE GEEAT TARTAR INVASIONS. 

From Jerusalem the reader must now transport 
himself beyond the Caspian Sea eastward if he would 
visit the early home of the Turks or Turcomans, or 
Turkmans, against which the first crusade was chiefly 
directed. Their Sycthian empire of the sixth century 
was long since dissolved, the tribes of the nations, each 
a powerful and independent kingdom, were scattered 
over the deserts of Central Asia from China to the 
Oxus and the Danube. Hordes of these wandering 
shepherds were about to overspread the kingdoms of 
Persia, shake the thrones of China and India, and erect 
a solid and splendid empire from Samarcand to the 
confines of Greece and Egypt. Their conquests were 
not to cease till their victorious crescents had been 
planted on the walls of Constantinople, and unfurled 
to the breeze from the dome of the most magnificent 
Christian temple of the world — the dome of St. Sophia. 

One of the greatest of Turkish princes was Mah- 
mood, who reigned over the eastern provinces of Persia 
one thousand years after the birth of Christ, (A. D. 
997-1028.) For him the title of Sultan was first in- 
vented — a word that signifies Lord or Master. His 
kingdom stretched from the shores of the Caspian Sea 
to the mouth of .the river Indus. 

In a series of twelve expeditions he waged a " Holy 
War " against the Gentoos of Hindustan. Never was 
104 



THE GREAT TARTAR INVASIONS. 105 

the Mussulman hero dismayed by the inclemency of the 
seasons, the heights of the mountains, the breadths of 
the rivers, the barrenness of the desert, the multitudes 
of the enemy or the formidable array of their elephants 
of war. But we cannot spare even a page to describe 
his swift and terrible campaigns that brought the power 
and wealth of India to his feet. As in his old age 
he surveyed the vast millions of gold and -silver, the 
countless spoils in pearls and diamonds and rubies that 
filled his treasure house, even his boundless avarice 
might have been satiated for a moment. As he reviewed 
the state of his regular military forces which comprised 
one hundred thousand foot, fifty-five thousand horse 
and thirteen hundred elephants of battle ; he wept the 
instability of human greatness, his grief embittered by 
the hostile progress of the Turcomans whom as allies he 
had introduced into the heart of his Persian kingdom. 

He was admonished of his folly by the reply of the 
chief of the race of Seljuk of whom he had inquired 
what supply of men he could furnish for military serv- 
ice. " If you send," replied Ishmael, " one of these 
arrows into our camp, fifty thousand of your servants 
will mount on horseback." 

"And if that number should not be sufficient?" 
" Send this second arrow to the horde of Balik and you 
will find fifty thousand more." " But," said Mali mood, 
dissembling his anxiety, " if I should stand in need of 
the whole force of your kindred tribes ? " 

"Despatch my bow," was the last reply of Ishmael, 
"and as it is sent around, the summons will be obeyed 
by two hundred thousand horse." Well might he fear, 
for the multitude of shepherds were converted into 
robbers j the bands of robbers only needed leaders to 



106 THE GKEAT TARTAR INVASIONS. 

become an army of conquerors, that would not be 
ashamed or afraid to measure courage and power with 
the proudest sovereigns of Asia. 

Too long did his son and successor neglect the 
advice of his wise men. " Your enemies " they re- 
peatedly urged " were in their origin a swarm of ants ; 
they are now little snakes ; and unless they be in- 
stantly crushed they will acquire the magnitude and 
venom of serpents." 

When the day of battle came, the swarm of ants had 
grown into a horde of fierce and mighty warriors : and 
although " Massoud exhibited such acts of gigantic 
force and valor as never king had before displayed," 
in the very hour when victory was about to perch on 
his banners in dismay, he beheld almost his whole army 
led by some generals of the Turkish race, "devouring 
the paths of flight." This memorable clay of Zendecan 
founded in Persia the dynasty of the Shepherd Kings. 

THE DYNASTY OF THE SELJUKIAN TURKS. (A. D. 

1038-1152.) 

The victorious Turcomans, determined by lot, it is 
said, the selection of their King; and it fell to Togrul 
Beg, grandson of Seljuk, whose surname was immortal- 
ized in the greatness of his posterity. At the age of 
forty-five Togrul was invested with the title of Sultan 
in the royal city of Nishabur, and the sceptre of Irak 
passed from the Persian to the Turkish nation, that 
now and everywhere embraced with fervor and sincerity 
the religion of Mohammed. 

At the conquest of Mosul and Bagdad he received 
from the Caliph of the East the title of the lieutenant 
of the vicar of the prophet, his mystic veil was per- 



THE GREAT TARTAR INVASIONS. 107 

fumed with musk, two crowns were placed on his head; 
two scimiters were girded to his side as the symbol of 
a double reign over the East aud the West. 

Soon myriads of Turkish horse went forth to con- 
quest, overspreading the frontier of six hundred miles 
from Tauris to Erzeroum : and the blood of hundreds 
of thousands of Christians were a grateful sacrifice to 
the Arabian prophet. 

The first invasion of poor Armenia was with more 
than a hundred thousand men and twenty -four prov- 
inces were laid waste. The second was with two 
hundred thousand and they completed the utter ruin of 
those provinces, carrying into captivity all the inhabi- 
tants. In the year 1049 the armies of Togrul made a 
third invasion, besieging the city of Ardzan, which had 
a population of three hundred thousand souls, and con- 
tained eight hundred churches with schools and hos- 
pitals. Notwithstanding their utmost resistance it was 
taken and a hundred and forty thousand people were 
massacred, the remnant were carried into captivity and 
the city was burned. Many other cities were treated 
in the same way. 

At the same time there were in Armenia sixty 
thousand Greek Christian troops from Constantinople, 
ostensibly for the protection of Armenia, yet they did 
not take a single step to repel the invaders, preferring 
to see the Armenians slaughtered. Verity history re- 
peated itself as the great " Christian " powers of Europe 
stood by witnessing the " reform of Armenia." 

There is some small sense of satisfaction in the fact 
that before the Turks left Armenia they utterly de- 
feated and dispersed these miserable " Defenders of the 
Faith." 



108 THE GREAT TARTAR INVASIONS. 

Again in the year 1053 Togrul appeared in Armenia, 
destroying many cities, among them the capital city of 
Kars and then marched to the city of Manazguerd and 
laid siege to it. 

Basilius, the Chief of the city, was a man of great 
bravery and military skill. He was assisted in the de- 
fence of the city by a skillful Armenian priest who, by 
his inventions rendered the machines raised by the 
Persians against the walls entirely useless. Then they 
planned to undermine the fortifications ; but this new 
design was revealed by a soldier who, smarting under 
some grevious and unjust punishment, shot an arrow 
into the city to which was fastened a letter making 
known their plans. A countermine was dug, and the 
Persian miners being captured they were taken into 
the city and beheaded on the battlements. 

In his rage Togrul caused a huge wooden ballista to 
be erected, — so large that it required four hundred 
men to drag it before the walls. Basilius offered a 
great reward to the man who should succeed in burning 
it. There was a very ingenious Gaul in the city who, 
having composed an inflammable mixture, mounted a 
swift horse and proceeded to the Persian camp holding 
a letter in his outstretched hand. He went directly to 
the spot where the ballista stood and while the guards 
fancied him a messenger sent to the King he hurled the 
bottles filled with the combustible material into the 
machine and in the confusion that attended the burning 
of the ballista escaped back to the city. 

The siege was soon raised but other cities felt the 
fury of his baffled rage as leaving a trail of fire and 
blood behind him, Togrul returned to Persia. The 
native historian whom we are consulting, in simplest 




"The Tubks aee Upon Us"— The Panic in Stamboul. 



THE GREAT TARTAR INVASIONS. Ill 

yet most telling pathos, writes : " Armenia, after this, 
enjoyed no repose." 

Upon the death of Togrul, (A. D. 1062) he was suc- 
ceeded by his nephew, Alp Arslan who, in the follow- 
ing year came to wreak vengeance on unhappy Arme- 
nia. Everywhere he committed the most horrid dev- 
astation. Marching to the province of Ararat he laid 
siege to Ani the Magnificent, with its thousand and one 
churches. 

The city was lost by the cowardice of the Governor. 
A breach had been made in an unprotected part of the 
wall, but being narrow the citizens so valiantly de- 
fended it that they compelled the Sultan to retire ; 
but the Governor, fancying that the Persians had suc- 
ceeded in forcing an entrance, retired into the citadel. 
Thinking themselves deserted, a panic seized the Ar- 
menians and about fifty thousand of them fled into 
the country from the gates on the opposite side of the 
city. 

The retreat of the Persians was countermanded, the 
city was taken, orders being given to put every man to 
the sword. Human blood flowed in torrents. So great 
was the carnage that the streets were literally choked 
up with dead bodies, and the waters of the river Akhur- 
ian flowed in crimson tides. After his first fury was 
somewhat abated, Alp Arslan gave orders to seize the 
most wealthy citizens still alive and torture them to 
make them reveal places where their treasures were 
hidden. Then he pillaged the thousand and one 
churches, murdered all the priests found therein, — some 
were drowned, some he flayed alive, others died under 
tortures as excruciating as most fiendish imagination 
could conceive or invent. Finally, gathering his cap- 



1 1 2 THE GREAT TARTAR INVASIONS. 

tives — men, women and children and his plunder, Alp 
Arslan returned to Persia. 

We must leave for awhile the bleeding Armenians 
whose kingdom had been annihilated, to the tender 
mercies of the wicked, to follow the path of rapine 
and horror as the torrents of unspeakable Turks flowed 
westward. 

They captured cities, put the inhabitants of Asia 
Minor to the sword and devastated the interior prov- 
inces to convert them into pasture lands for their 
nomad followers. 

Romanus, husband of the Greek Empress Euclocia 
took the field against them, and driving them back to 
the Euphrates, laid siege to the fortress of Manzikert 
or Malasgerd in Armenia midway between modern 
Erzeroum and Van. It was on the plain of Manzikert 
in 1071 after the capture of the fortress, that the East 
gained one of its greatest triumphs over the West. 
The Seljuk Sultan and the Roman Emperor met face to 
face. Romanus rejected in haughty pride the over- 
tures of the Sultan that might have secured his re- 
treat, perhaps peace — and prepared for battle. The 
Sultan with his own hands tied up the flowing tail of 
his horse, exchanged his bow and arrows for a mace 
and scimiter, clothed himself in a white garment, 
perfumed his body with musk, and declared that if he 
were vanquished, that spot should be the place of his 
burial. The Sultan himself had cast away his missile 
weapons, but his hopes of victory were in the arrows 
of his cavalry whose squadrons were loosely placed in 
the form of a crescent. Romanus led his army in a 
single and solid phalanx and pressed with vigor the 
artful and yielding resistance of the barbarians. Thus 



THE GREAT TARTAR INVASIONS. lib 

the greater part of a hot summer's day was spent in 
fruitless combat until fatigue compelled him to sound 
a return to camp. This was the fatal moment. The 
Turkish squadrons poured a cloud of arrows on the re- 
treating army throwing them into confusion. The 
horns of the crescent closed in upon the rear of the 
Greeks. 

The destruction of the army was complete, the booty 
immense. Nobly did the Emperor with desperate cour- 
age maintain the fight till the close of the day. The 
imperial station was left naked on all sides to the 
victorious Turks. His body guard fell about him — his 
horse was slain and he himself was wounded, yet he 
stood as a lion at bay. He was captured, despoiled of 
his jewelled robes, bound and guarded all night on the 
field of the dead. 

In the morning the successor of Constantine in 
plebian habit was led into the presence of the Sultan 
and commanded to kiss the ground at the feet of the 
Lord of Asia. Reluctantly he obeyed, and Alp Arslan, 
starting from his throne, is said to have planted his foot 
on the neck of the Roman Emperor. No captive was 
ever more nobly treated than Romanus Diogenes ; but 
no captivity ever wrought more lasting woe. Three 
years later the Seljuk was the recognized Lord of Asia 
Minor, and as such ventured to call himself the Lord of 
Rome. Following the defeat of the Romans the Turks 
marched into Syria and reduced Damascus by famine 
and the sword. Other cities in Palestine yielded until 
the victorious army passing southward stood on the 
banks of the Nile. The city of Cairo in desperate 
battle drove back the armies of the Sultan from the 
confines of Egypt ; but in their retreat Jerusalem was 



114 THE GREAT TARTAR INVASIONS. 

conquered and the house of Seljuk held the city for 
some twenty years. 

When Jerusalem fell before the arms of the 
Crusaders in 1099, the event was applauded as a de- 
liverance in Europe, and was deplored as a calamity in 
Asia. The Syrian fugitives diffused everywhere their 
sorrow and consternation : Bagdad mourned in the 
dust; the Cadi of Damascus tore his beard in the 
Caliph's presence ; the Commanders of the faithful could 
only weep and vow vengeance on the head of the in- 
fidels who had defiled the Holy City. 

It is not our purpose to pursue the story of the 
crusades through all the years that made Jerusalem the 
prize of battle equally to Christian and Mohammedan. 
The life and exploits of Saladin and Richard, the lion- 
hearted are more thrilling than any romance. In a 
fanatic age, himself a fanatic, the genuine virtues of 
Saladin commanded the esteem of the Christians; the 
Emperor of Germany gloried in his friendship; the 
Greek Emperor solicited his alliance. Egypt, Syria, 
and Arabia were adorned by the royal foundations of 
hospitals, colleges and mosques ; Cairo was fortified 
with a wall and citadel; but his works were consecrated 
to public use : nor did the Sultan indulge himself in a 
garden or palace of private luxury. The son of Job, a 
simple Kurd, Saladin was after the follies of a hot 
youth, a rigid Mussulman, his garment of coarse woolen, 
and water his only drink. 

But already had he won for himself the name of 
" The Scourge of God." He had united all the forces 
and riches of Egypt and Asia under his sword and now 
(1187 A. D.) hastened with eighty thousand horse to 
the deliverance of Palestine. 



THE GREAT TARTAR INVASIONS. 115 

Three months after the battle of Tiberias (July 4 
and 5, 1187) he appeared in arms before Jerusalem. 
When Saladin had partially completed its investment, 
he invited its principal inhabitants to meet him in 
council. When they were assembled he said : " I ac- 
knowledge that Jerusalem is the House of God. I do 
not wish to profane its sanctity by the shedding of 
blood. Abandon its walls and I will bestow on you a 
part of my treasures, and I will bestow on you as much 
land as you will be able to cultivate." To which the 
Christians replied : " We cannot yield the city in 
which our God died: still less can we give it up to 
you." 

This refusal enraged Saladin, and he swore to destroy 
the towers and ramparts of Jerusalem, and avenge the 
death of the Mussulmen slaughtered by the soldiers of 
Godfrey of Bouillon. 

The siege went on. Many and fierce the sorties 
from the gates of the city : but fight as they would the 
operations of the infidels could not be stayed. Despair 
set in, mingled with wailing, tears and prayers. 
Jerusalem was filled with sobs and groans. 

Deputies were sent out to propose a capitulation on 
the terms which he had first proposed. He sent them 
back without one word of hope. But one day as the 
deputies were pleading with unusual earnestness, 
Saladin pointed to his standards just placed upon the 
walls saying : " How can you ask me to grant condi- 
tions to a city which is already taken ? " But he spoke 
too confidently, for at that moment they were stricken 
down again. 

As they went down Baleau the leader of the 
Christian forces spoke up : " You see Jerusalem is not 



116 THE GREAT TARTAR INVASIONS. 

without defenders. If we can obtain no mercy from 
you we will form a terrible resolution which will fill 
you with horror. These temples and palaces you are 
so anxious to conquer shall be destroyed. The riches 
which excite your cupidity shall be burned. We will 
destroy the mosque of Omar. We will pound into 
dust the stone of Jacob which is an object of your 
worship. We will stay our women and our children 
with our own hands that they shall never be your 
slaves. When the Holy City shall become a ruin — a 
vast tomb — we will march out of it armed with fire 
and sword and no one of us will ascend to Paradise 
without first consigning ten Mussulmen to hell. We 
shall thus obtain a glorious death and in dying shall 
call down on your head the maledictions of the God of 
Jerusalem." 

Saladin was awed by this terrible speech : told the 
deputies to return the next day, when the terms of 
capitulation were signed in the tent of the great sul- 
tan, and Jerusalem passed again into the hands of the 
infidels, after having remained for eighty-eight years 
in the possesion of the Christians. The Saracens boast 
that they retook the Holy City on Friday, "the anniver- 
sary of the day on which Mohammed ascended from it 
into heaven : but the complete conquest of the Holy 
Land by the Turks was to be delayed yet an hundred 
years. 

Finally, however, before Mamelukes of Egypt, 
Jerusalem, and all the cities of the coast fell, and 
Acre became the last stronghold of the crusaders. 
Against it marched the Sultan Khali at the head of 
sixty thousand horse and ore hundred and forty thou- 
sand foot. 



THE GREAT TARTAR INVASIONS. 117 

After a siege of thirty-three clays the double 
wall was forced, the towers yielded to their engines, 
the Moslems stormed the city May 18, (A. D., 1291) 
carried it by the sword ; and death or slavery was the 
lot of sixty thousand Christians. By the command of 
the Sultan the churches and the fortifications, of the 
Latin cities were demolished, and "a mournful and 
solitary silence prevailed along the coast which had 
so long resounded with the World's Debate; and 
hundreds of thousands of warriors had found the " Par- 
adise that lies under the shade of swords." 

Again must we go to the " roof of the world" to be- 
hold the great eruption of Moguls and Tartars whose 
fierce and rapid and cruel conquests can only be com- 
pared with the destructive forces of nature in her wild- 
est moods when she lets loose upon the earth fire 
and flood, earthquake, avalanche and volcano. From 
these spacious highlands the tides of emigration and 
the floods of war have repeatedly been poured. In 
the twelfth century the various tribes akin to Hun and 
Turk were united and led to conquest by the formid- 
able Jenghiz Khan, i. e. the most great Khan or Em- 
peror of the Moguls and Tartars. 

The code of laws which Jenghiz Khan dictated to 
his subjects was adapted to the preservation of 
domestic peace and the exercise of foreign hostility. 
These fiercest of men were mild and just in their inter- 
course with each other. Their primitive religion con- 
sisted in belief in the existence of one God, the author 
of all good, who fills by His presence the heavens and 
the earth which He has created by His power. The 
Tartars and Moguls were addicted to the idols of 
their various tribes yet there were among them con- 



118 THE GREAT TARTAR INVASIONS. 

verts to the religions of Moses, Mohammed and of 
Christ. 

Soon all the kindred tribes from the great wall of 
China to the Volga owned his sway. He was the 
Khan of many millions of shepherds and warriors. The 
court of Pekin was astonished at receiving an embassy 
from a former vassal demanding the same tribute and 
obedience which he himself had but lately paid. On 
receiving a haughty answer innumerable squadrons 
soon pierced on all sides the feeble rampart of the great 
wall and ninety cities were laid low. On his second 
invasion he laid siege to Pekin. The famine was ter- 
rible. Men were chosen by lot to be slain for food. 
The Moguls mined under the capital and the conflagra- 
tion of the city lasted for thirty da} T s. China was deso- 
lated by Tartar war and domestic faction and the five 
northern provinces were added to the empire of 
Jenghiz. On the west he touched the dominions of 
Mohammed, sultan of Carizme, who reigned from the 
Persian gulf to the borders of India and Turkestan. 

A caravan of three ambassadors and one hundred 
and fifty merchants having been put to death by the 
orders of Mohammed, after he had fasted and pra} r ed for 
three nights on a mountain, Jenghiz appealed to the 
judgment of God and his own sword. Seven hundred 
thousand Moguls and Tartars are said to have marched 
under the banners of Jenghiz and his four sons. On 
the vast plains stretching north of the river Jaxartes 
(now Jihon) they encountered four hundred thousand 
soldiers of the Sultan. In the first battle it is said that 
one hundred and sixty thousand Carizmians were slain. 
The whole country then lay open to his fierce warriors 
and from the Caspian to the Indus, a tract of many 



THE GREAT TARTAR INVASIONS. 119 

hundreds of miles, adorned with the habitations and 
labors of the most highly civilized races of Asia, was 
desolated so completely that five centuries have not re- 
paired the ravages of four years. In all this Jenghiz 
Khan indulged and encouraged the fury of his army. 
He now yielded with reluctance to the murmurs of his 
weary but wealthy troops who sighed for the rest of 
their native lands. 

The return of Jenghiz was signalized by the over- 
throw of the few remaining independent kingdoms in 
Tartary : and he died in the fulness of years and glory, 
with his last breath exhorting his sons to achieve the 
conquest of the Chinese Empire. In the sixty-eight 
years of his first four successors the Mogul had subdued 
almost all Asia and a large portion of Europe. 

To the East China was subdued; to the South the 
conquest of Hindustan was reserved for the house of 
Timour or Tamerlane. While the hosts that went 
forth to conquer Russia, Poland, Hungary, etc., (1235- 
1245) inscribed on the military roll numbered fifteen 
hundred thousand men. Holagon the grandson of 
Jenghiz Khan had but to thrust at the phantom of 
power which the Caliphs of Bagdad enjoyed when it 
vanished like the mist. Bagdad after a siege of two 
brief months, was stormed and sacked and the savage 
Tartar pronounced the death of the Caliph Mostasem 
the last of the temporal successors of Mohammed whose 
noble kinsmen of the race of Abbas had reigned in Asia 
above five hundred years. 

Once more the torrents of woe flow in upon Arme- 
nia lying in the track of the Tartar armies westward. 
Ani is again besieged and soon a famine broke out 
within the walls and many of the citizens rushed out 



120 THE GREAT TARTAR INVASIONS. 

and gave themselves up to the mercy of their enemies 
They were kindly received and a sufficient supply of 
food was given to them. Induced by this kindness 
more than half of the inhabitants were soon found in 
the camp of the Tartars. All at once the poor wretches 
were divided into small parties under the pretext of 
receiving better protection when the soldiers fell upon 
them and massacred every individual. Then the city 
was easily taken, destroyed by fire and the entire popu- 
lation put to the sword. 

Many cities suffered the desolations and horrors of 
Ani till the Khan ordered his chiefs on to other con- 
quests. Then followed the infliction of a heavy capita- 
tion tax on all the remaining provinces — sixty pieces of 
money being demanded of every Armenian from the age 
of ten- upwards. Those who were unable to pay this 
sum suffered intolerable tortures. Those who were 
possessed of lands lost them, their wives and children 
being seized and sold into slavery. Nothing ever 
equalled the horrors that now overspread this unhappy 
country, most of the inhabitants having no money to 
pay the tax and having no place to which to flee from 
their oppressors. Finally an embassy to Mangon Khan, 
a grandson of Jenghiz secured some little alleviation of 
their misery. 

Meantime there was growing up in Cilicia a subordi- 
nate kingdom of Armenia with Tarsus for its capital — 
and receiving favor from the Sultan of Egypt and the 
Khan of the Tartars. Leo III. resumed the kingly reins 
of his kingdom comprising all of Modern Anatolia. 
He repaired his cities; he erected public schools. He 
caused all the literary productions of the Armenians 
from the earliest ages to be recopied and distributed 



THE GREAT TARTAR INVASIONS. 121 

among the convents of the kingdom. He reigned for 
twenty years ardently devoted to the service of God 
and died in the year 1289. 

His son, Hethum, was a prince who despised all 
worldly pomp and grandeur, seldom arrayed himself in 
royal apparel. He was greatly attached to the priests 
of his capital engaging daily with them in prayers and 
other religious exercises. He was particularly fond of 
the literary productions of the Fathers of the Church. 
His Bible was his daily companion. He caused a copy 
of it to be prepared expressly for himself, and at the end 
of it wrote some lines expressive of the high satisfaction 
and comfort he had derived from its frequent perusal. 

These paragraphs may show what has ever been the 
character of these people who are still being harried to 
death in the same provinces where they have lived and 
suffered for centuries. 

The decline of the spirit of conquest in the Mogul 
princes of Persia gave a free scope to the rise and prog- 
ress of the Ottoman Empire which was soon to strike 
fear into the heart of the Emperor of Constantinople, 
and finalty establish itself in Europe where it remains 
to this day a blot on Western civilization and a curse 
to all the people over which it rules. 

Tn 1360 we find the throne of the Ottoman Turks es- 
tablished at Adrianople almost within sight of Con- 
stantinople which after resisting for a thousand years 
the assaults of barbarians of the East and the West, 
now saw herself hemmed in, both in Europe and Asia, 
by the same hostile power and her Emperor following 
at his summons the court and camp of an Ottoman 
Prince. 

Bajazet surnamed Ilderim, or " The Lightning " who 



122 THE GREAT TARTAR INVASIONS. 

came to the throne in 1389, and reigned fourteen years, 
fills a brilliant page in Ottoman history. He forced 
Constantinople to pay tribute and enjoyed the glory of 
being the first to found a royal Mosque in the glorious 
metropolis of the Eastern Church. He would speedily 
have forced its absolute surrender but that he was 
doomed to meet and be overthrown by a savage still 
more savage than himself — the name that caused all 
Europe and Asia to tremble with fear — the great, the 
terrible, the blood-thirsty Timour or Tamerlane. The 
family of Tamerlane was another branch of the imper- 
ial stem of Jenghiz Khan. He was born 1335 A. D., 
in a village that lies forty miles to the south of Samar- 
cand, in a tribe of which his fathers were the hereditary 
chiefs. His birth was cast in a time of anarchy of bit- 
ter domestic feuds ; when the Khans of Kashgar with 
an army of Calmucks harassed the Trans-oxian King- 
dom. At the age of twenty-five he stood forth as the 
deliverer of his people : and in ten years he was in- 
vested with imperial command of the Zagatai. The 
rule over a fertile and populous land five hundred miles 
in extent either way, might have satisfied an ordinary 
man : but Timour aspired to the dominion of the world 
and before his death the crown of Zagatai was but one 
of twenty-seven which he had placed upon his head. 
He first swept Persia to the sea. The city of Ormuz 
bought its safety for an annual tribute of six hundred 
thousand pieces of gold. Bagdad was laid in ruins : and 
from the gulf to the mountains of Ararat the whole 
course of the Tigris and Euphrates was reduced to his 
obedience. 

The Khan of the Mogul Empire of the North sw r ept 
down through the gates of Derbend entering Persia at 



THE GREAT TARTAR INVASIONS. 123 

the head of ninety thousand horse, burned the palaces 
of Timour and compelled him amidst the snows of 
winter to contend for Samarcand and his life. 

After a mild expostulation, and a glorious victory he 
resolved on revenge. He invaded Tartary with armies 
so vast that thirteen miles stretched between his left 
and right wing. In a march of five months they rarely 
beheld the footsteps of man. At length the armies 
met in most fearful conflict. In the heat of conflict the 
treachery of the bearer of the imperial standard of Kipzak 
turned the tide of victory to the Zagatai, and Timour gave 
up the mingled hosts to the " wind of desolation." The 
pursuit of a flying enemy led him into the provinces of 
Russia. Moscow trembled at the approach of the Tar- 
tar, but he turned his armies southward, and on the 
banks of the Don received a deputation of the mer- 
chants of Egypt, Venice, Genoa, and Spain, who had 
built up the great commerce and the city of Azoph. 
They offered him gifts, admired his magnificence, trusted 
his word. But the peaceful visit of an Emir who ex- 
plored the state of the magazines and harbors was 
speedily followed by the destructive presence of the 
Tartars, who reduced the city to ashes, pillaged the 
Moslems, and put every Christian to the sword or 
sold them into slavery. Having laid waste all the 
cities in Southern Russia, he returned to his capital at 
Samarcand. 

Samarcand, the center of his magnificence, the depot 
of all riches, arose and extended itself as by magic at 
each return of the world's conqueror. It is said that 
Babylon, Bagdad, Persepolis, Palmyra, Baalbec and 
Damascus, were all cast into the shade by the mosques, 
palaces, gardens, and aqueducts which arose under the 



124 THE GREAT TARTAR INVASIONS. 

hands of most skillful artisans brought from every cap- 
tured city to decorate the capital of a barbarian. 

Here amid the delights of his gardens, the love of 
his women, the conversation of his men of letters, the 
eulogies of poets, did Tamerlane refresh himself after 
the exploits of a five years' campaign. But his loves, 
and delights of ease, did not make him forget that 
dream of all conquerors — India, and at this invasion 
he overran it from the Indus to Delhi, and from the 
Ocean to Thibet. 

As he proceeded on his march, his army became en- 
cumbered with the captives, and he ordered one hun- 
dred thousand of them slain in a single night. Re- 
morse, pity, and indignation, seized even a Tartar army, 
but Tamerlane answered it only by the conquest and 
massacre of Delhi, that great and magnificent city 
which had flourished for three hundred years, under 
Mohammedan kings ; the ruins of which are still seen 
for miles on every side of the modern city. The blood 
of the slain, crimsoned the waters of the Sacred Ganges 
for many, many miles on its course to the sea. The re- 
cital of his cruelties could not be believed, were they 
not recorded in the history of all the nations he con- 
quered. The treasures were of incalculable value, and 
every soldier received one hundred slaves for his share 
and every Tartar camp follower, twent}'. 

It was while camping on the bank of the Ganges that 
Tamerlane received from his couriers the tidings of 
the disturbances on the confines of Anatolia and Geor- 
gia, of the revolt of the Christians and the ambitious 
designs of Bajazet. He returned to Samarcand having 
accomplished in a twelve month ihe ten years* campaign 
of Alexander the Great. 



THE GEEAT TARTAR INVASIONS. . 125 

After enjoying a few months tranquillity he proclaimed 
a seven years' campaign against the countries of Western 
Asia. To the soldiers who had served in the Indian 
wars he granted their choice of home or camp, but the 
troops of all the kingdoms and provinces of Persia were 
commanded to assemble at Ispahan and await the im- 
perial standard. 

With an army of eight hundred thousand fighting 
men and a multitude of slaves so vast that it is said 
that they dried up the earth as they marched, he started 
westward. Words are lacking to describe the desola- 
tion and cruelty that attended his march and the sack- 
ing of cities. 

Multitudes of Christians suffered untold horrors 
rather than deny their faith. The cities that attempted 
to resist behind their walls were effaced from the earth, 
and upon their sites towers were erected, the walls 
of which were composed of living men cemented in the 
lime. 

Pursuing the people of Georgia into the gorges of the 
Caucasus Mountains he inflicted upon them great 
slaughter, and discovering many caverns into which 
men, women and children had fled for safety he walled 
up their entrances and left them to perish. 

Ispahan in a moment of folly having rebelled and 
massacred three thousand Tartars he sent back one 
hundred thousand soldiers with orders that every man 
should bring him a head on penalty of losing his own. 
Ispahan in consternation and horror paid this price for 
its revolt, and on the site of a dismantled city, a mason- 
wrought pyramid of a hundred thousand heads told the 
awful story of their doom. 

Proceeding westward Tamerlane laid siege to Siwas, 



126 THE GREAT TARTAR INVASIONS. 

or Sebaste, modern Siwas, a city having walls of prodi- 
gious thickness and a broad moat filled with running 
water. 

It contained one hundred and fifty thousand souls, 
was defended by intrepid Armenians and seemed able 
to defy every assault of a Tartar multitude without 
battering artillery to shake the walls. 

Bat Tamerlane hesitated only a moment. Prodigal 
of men, he set thousands at work to undermine the 
rocks that formed the foundation of the walls. He 
emptied the moats by cutting deeper channels for the 
river. He cut down adjacent forests to prop up the 
mines dug under the towers of the walls ; and then set- 
ting on fire this underground forest he saw the rocks 
give way engulfing walls, houses and defenders in the 
ruins. Twenty days and nights sufficed to open 
enormous breaches for his soldiers. The city naked 
and trembling before him awaited its fate. Timour 
promised to spare the lives of Mohammedans and Chris- 
tians, and to be content with servitude. But scarcely 
had he entered it before he inundated it with the blood 
of its defenders. By his ferocity he made all the East 
and the West to shudder, and the world to stand aghast 
at its recital after more than four centuries have cov- 
ered its horrors. Four thousand Ottomans were buried 
alive up to the neck and thus left to perish. Countless 
Christians were bound in couples and cast into trenches 
which were then covered with boards and earth, and 
over them the Tartars pitched their tents and took 
fiendish delight in their moanings. Women were 
bound by the hair of their heads to the tails of wild 
young horses and thus dragged to death. The young 
children were bound hand and foot and laid together 




the new grand vizier. tashin bey. the sheik-al-islam. 

The New Grand Vizier on His Way to the Sublime Porte. 



THE GREAT TARTAR INVASIONS. 129 

on an open plain and trampled to death by his cavalry. 
With the exception of the male children fit for slavery, 
and the young girls reserved for the harem the entire 
population was destroyed. 

Do 3^011 shudder at even this cool recital ? Far worse 
horrors are still being endured by the Christian people of 
Armenia this very day on ground that is dyed with the 
blood of a thousand years of martydrom. And still 
Christian Europe is unmoved; and the Turk, drunk 
with the blood of his victims still is propped up on his 
throne by the arms that should drive him back to the 
deserts of Tartary : and Christian America contents it- 
self with trying by their relief funds to keep alive the 
starving remnants of this harried race whose cry to 
Christendom is " either kill us or in God's name redeem 
us." 

As Timour took up again his march from desolated 
Siwas he dragged with cords along the stones of the 
road at the heels of his horse the head of the governor 
of Siwas, one of the sons of Bajazet who was then be- 
sieging Constantinople. Aroused by the danger that 
threatened him yet with a deep sadness caused by the 
death of his son which settled upon him as if in presen- 
timent of his own fate, Bajazet raised the siege, called 
all his forces together to meet the bloody Conqueror of 
the East. Aleppo and Damascus meanwhile fell with 
terrible slaughter, and now on the plains not far from 
Siwas, Timour awaited the coming of Bajazet. 

Tamerlane hesitated to engage in this battle with a 
race of his own blood, the champions of the faith of the 
Prophet, who were fighting like himself for the triumph 
of Islam. His envoys were disgracefully treated and his 
messages were answered with most haughty andinsult- 
8 



130 THE GREAT TARTAR INVASIONS. 

ing letters. " Thy armies " said Bajazet " are innumer- 
able; be they so: but what are the arrows of the flying 
Tartars against the scimiters and battle-axes of my 
firm and invincible Janizaries?" 

Then this deadly insult : "If I fly from thy arms, 
may my wives be thrice divorced from my bed ; but, if 
thou hast not courage to meet me in the field mayest 
thou again receive thy wives after they have thrice en- 
dured the embraces of a stranger." 

On receiving this letter Timour exclaimed : " De- 
cidedly the son of Mourad is mad." 

All day long Timour reviewed his troops of horse as 
the squadrons passed before him, then turning again to 
the envoy he made a last offer of peace, " Saj r to your 
master that he can still, in accepting my just and 
moderate conditions, spare the fatal dissension of two 
servants of the one God, and torrents of human blood 
to Asia." 

Bajezet was both deaf and blind to the advice of his 
viziers, his generals and the last message of Tamerlane ; 
and was determined to meet with his arm}' of four 
hundred thousand men which he had seen gathering 
for two years, the well trained army of eight hundred 
thousand men who were formed in nine divisions under 
the four sons and five favored grandsons of the greatest 
warrior of the world. 

Never had the sun of Asia shed its light upon so vast 
a multitude of warriors gathered for so deadly a con- 
flict on July 28, 1402. Timour brought forward only 
five hundred thousand of his choicest troops, horse and 
foot, yet they covered the amphitheater of the hills 
which arose behind the river in the basin to the north 
of Angora. He had most carefully chosen his field of 



THE GREAT TARTAR INVASIONS. 131 

battle and his position, and facing him was the vast army 
of Bajazet. All historians, Arabian, Greek and Otto- 
man agree that over one million men faced each other on 
this listed field. The situation added to the tragic maj- 
esty of the spectacle. The plain, the gradation of the 
hills and the rugged mountains of Angora made a circus 
worthy of these imperial gladiators of the two Asias. 

Timour was stationed on an elevated mound whence 
he could survey the whole field, while behind him and 
out of sight from the enemy were forty divisions of 
select cavalry ready at the critical moment to strengthen 
any wavering squadrons, or to be hurled on the field to 
consummate the victory. 

The first dawn of day upon the mountains of Angora 
illuminated those two armies in order of battle but 
motionless. But when the sun had dispelled the shade 
from the foot of the hills, at the rolling of drums of the 
Turks with the cry of Allah Achbar the army of 
Bajazet was put in motion. Soon the battle was on. 
The first charge of one wing of Tartar cavalry was 
broken by the immobility of the Servian mountaineers. 

Then in the rapid advance of his enemy's troops 
Timour discovered that the Asiatic army of Bajazet had 
passed the level of the Ottoman lines in order to turn 
the hills he was occupying, and down he rushed with 
his reserve cavalry of forty divisions and cut in two the 
army of Europe and the army of Asia, throwing one of 
them back upon the hills and the other into the marshes 
on the left, slaughtering at the center some thousands 
of Ottomans and forcing Bajazet himself to fly with ten 
thousand of his Janizaries to a rising ground detached 
from the mountains whose steep declivities checked the 
impetuosity of the Tartar cavalry. 



132 THE GREAT TARTAR INVASIONS. 

Timour watched with admiration the retreat of 
the Servian mountaineers, as in dense columns 
clad in splendid mail, unshaken by repeated charges 
of his cavalry they forced their way obliquely 
through that multitude until they gained the foot- 
hills in safety- " These miserable peasants are lions," 
he exclaimed in admiration of their discipline and their 
courage. 

Two sons of Bajazet were rescued by the bold daring 
of their devoted followers, but in vain did they urge 
the Emperor himself to seek refuge in flight. Satisfied 
that his sons were safe he continued to fight for glory 
or for death behind the rampart of his Janizaries who 
formed about him a circular wall with their dead 
bodies. Never was fidelity more desperate, more un- 
swerving. Stolen from Christian homes at an early 
age and trained as warriors they knew no other home 
than the camp. They knew that their birth among 
the Christians and their name of renegades left them 
no other choice than that of death upon the field of 
battle or the field of torture. The retreat of the ten 
thousand after the death of Cyrus did not equal the 
glorious suicide of these ten thousand Janizaries about 
the body of their Sultan. 

As the shades of evening began to fall, Bajazet, his 
youngest son and a few faithful generals and a group 
of horsemen sought to escape into the woody recesses 
of the mountains. A troop of Tartar cavalry closely 
pursued the trail of the retreating Sultan. The day 
was about to break and they hoped to escape by swim- 
ming a swift stream, the horsemen they heard gallop- 
ing behind them when a loose shoe caused the horse of 
the Sultan to stumble. None would save themselves 



THE GREAT TARTAR INVASIONS. 133 

and leave their master, and as one of the Beys was pre- 
senting his own horse to him, a Tartar emir with a 
body of horsemen surrounded the small group of the 
Ottomans and they were prisoners. 

Before night had fallen the vanquished Sultan in 
chains, covered with dust and blood, was brought be- 
fore Timour, who was seated in the shade of his tent 
playing chess with the son whom he called the hope of 
his race. The vanquisher showed neither pride nor in- 
solence before the vanquished. He remembered the 
maxims and respected the finger of God even in the 
enemy overthrown at his feet. He remembered that 
he was of the same race, that they were fighting for the 
same faith and he almost begged his pardon for the vic- 
tory. He ordered him to be released, begged him to 
take a seat with him at the front of his tent on the 
same rank with himself and promised him that his 
honor and his life would suffer no risk during his brief 
captivity. Three imperial tents were prepared for his 
use ; and after the discovery of his attempt to escape, 
Bajazet was chained at night in one of those iron- barred 
litters wherein women in their journeys are carried be- 
tween two mules. Hence the popular, but erroneous, 
tradition throughout the East about the iron cage 
wherein Timour had shut up the Sultan intending to 
exhibit him in his palace at Samarcand. Timour per- 
mitted Bajazet to send for his favorite wife, the Prin- 
cess of Servia — exacting from her at a banquet, but only 
for a single time, that she should hand him a cup of 
Cyprus wine the sole vengeance he wished to take for 
the insulting letter wherein Bajazet had threatened him 
with taking off his harem. 

Bajazet died about nine months after his defeat at 



134 THE GREAT TARTAR INVASIONS. 

Antioch in Pisidia — bis empire, lost in a single battle — 
having fallen into fragments before his eyes. 

Turning away from the possible conquest of Europe 
Tamerlane soon returned to Samarcaud and in 1405 set 
out for the final and complete conquest of China. 
Neither age nor the severity of the winter could retard 
the impatience of Timour, he passed the Sihon on the 
ice, marched hundreds of miles, then pitching his last 
camp, died of fever and fatigue and the indiscreet use 
of iced water April 1, 1405. The conqueror of Asia 
had reigned for thirty-five years and died at the age of 
seventy-one, having shed more blood and caused more 
misery than any other human being ever born on the 
earth. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 

With the death of Tamerlane all his further de- 
signs were lost ; his armies were disbanded; China was 
saved ; and fourteen years after his decease, the most 
powerful of his children sent an embassy of friendship 
and commerce to the court of Pekin. But far differ- 
ent was the fate of the Ottoman monarchy. The mas 
sive trunk was bent to the ground, but no sooner had 
the hurricane passed than it again rose with fresh vigor 
and more luxuriant foliage. 

The province of Anatolia was desolated; the cities 
without walls or palaces, without treasures or rulers : 
while the open country was overspread with hordes of 
shepherds of Tartar or Turcoman origin. The five 
living sons of Bajazet were soon fighting for the spoils 
of their father's empire : finally the favorite son Mo- 
hammed I., stood forth as the sole heir of the empire. 
He obtained Anatolia by treaty and Roumania by force 
of arms and the eight years of his peaceful reign were 
spent in banishing the vices of civil discord and plac- 
ing on a firmer basis the fabric of the Ottoman mon- 
archy. The wisest Turks were devoted to the unifying 
of the empire and from Anatolia to Roumania one 
spirit seemed to animate them all. The Christian pow- 
ers of Europe might have emulated their example, but 
the bitter schism between the Greek and the Latin di- 
visions of the church, the factions and the wars of 

(135) 



136 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 

France and England, blinded them to the danger that 
was threatening in the East. 

Had a confederate fleet occupied the straits of the 
Dardanelles and a strong fort been built on the west 
side at Gallipoli, the Ottoman power must speedily 
have been annihilated ; but as it was the dissensions 
and the indifference of the other powers of Europe first 
yielded up the Greek Empire to the Turks as they have 
since sustained it — an alien power — race and religion in 
one of the fairest regions of the earth. 

In sheerest folly did Manuel the Emperor of Con- 
stantinople enter into an alliance with Mohammed I., 
whereas his policy should have been to prolong the di- 
vision of the Ottoman powers. The Sultan and his 
troops were transported over the Bosphorus, and were 
hospitably entertained in the capital. Not long after 
he unsheathed a sword of revenge in delivering the true 
or the false Mustapha, real or pretended son of Bajazet 
I., on his promise of delivering up the keys of Gallipoli, 
or rather of Europe, so soon as he was placed on the 
throne of Roumania. But no sooner was he established 
than he dismissed the Greek ambassadors with a smile 
of contempt, saying in a pious tone that at the day of 
judgment he would rather answer for the violation of 
an oath than for having delivered up a Mussulman city 
into the hands of an infidel. 

The Emperor was thus at once the hated of the 
two rivals for the Ottoman throne ; and the victory of 
Amurath over Mustapha was followed by the siege of 
Constantinople, the following spring (A. D. 1422, June 
10, Aug. 24). The strength of the walls successfully 
resisted an army of two hundred thousand Turks for 
some two months, when the army was drawn off to 



THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 137 

quell some domestic revolt, and the fall of the city was 
delayed fur thirty years under the disgraceful condi- 
tions uf the payment of tribute to Turkey. 

Meantime the Ottomans were with cruel severity, 
organizing a terrible power for further conquest. The 
captured provinces of Thrace, Macedonia, Albania, 
Bulgaria and Servia, became the perpetual recruiting 
ground for the Turkish army. After the royal fifth of 
the captives was diminished by conquest, an inhuman 
tax of the fifth child "or of every fifth year was rigor- 
ously levied on the Christian families. At the age of 
twelve or fourteen, the most robust youths were torn 
away from their parents to be trained for the army or 
for civil service. They might pass through four suc- 
cessive schools according to their development or prom- 
ise and then found themselves without friendships, out- 
side their own number, without parents, without homes, 
dependent on the will of the despot on the throne, 
whose hand, on the slightest displeasure could break in 
pieces " these statues of glass." 

Thus with satanic craftiness and cruelty were the 
stolen children of Christian races trained to become the 
destroyers of a Christian empire, which, for more than 
a thousand years had stayed the flood of barbarism 
from sweeping over all Europe. 

Freeman, the historian, declares that we may take 
Mohammed II., as the ideal of his race, the embodi- 
ment in their fullest form of Ottoman greatness and 
Ottoman wickedness. A general and a statesman of 
the highest order, he was also a man of intellectual 
cultivation in other ways, a master of many languages 
and a patron of the art and the literature of his time. 
At the same time the three abiding Ottoman vices, 



138 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 

cruelty, lust and faithlessness, stand forth in terrible 
preeminence. His first act was the murder of his in- 
fant brother and he made the murder of brothers the 
standing law of his empire. He made the Ottoman 
power what it has been ever since. He defined its 
northern and western boundaries. "The Ottoman Em- 
pire as our age has to deal with it, is before all things 
the work of Mohammed the Conqueror." 

His reign was from 1451 to 1481. Coming to the 
throne at the early age of twenty-one, he had read 
Plutarch assiduously and studied .the careers of Alexan- 
der, Caesar and other great conquerors ; causing also 
the biographies of illustrious men to be translated into 
Turkish, to give to himself and to his people the emu- 
lation of glory. 

On returning to Adrianople, this thirst of glory and 
of conquest devoured him as it had devoured his an- 
cient models. He coveted Constantinople with a con- 
suming avidity that often woke him with a bound from 
his sleep. The phantom of Constantinople beset by 
day and night the young conqueror. He tried to con- 
ceal his impatience for fear of exciting before the hour 
the emotions of the Christian West. He could not re- 
strain it. He sent for his grand vizier, Khalil, at night. 
Alarmed, the vizier embraced as in a last farewell his 
wife and daughter, made his death prayer and ap- 
peared before the Sultan. He prostrated himself as if 
to redeem his life by a ransom and presented to Mo- 
hammed II. the golden cup. " Do not fear, my lala, 
(familiar term as father), do not fear, it is not thy gold 
nor thy life I want : what I want that thou shouldest 
give me is Constantinople." Then showing him his 
eyes, fatigued with sleeplessness, and his couch disor- 



THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 139 

dered, he added, " I cannot sleep unless you promise 
me what I dream of night and day." 

" You must have it, my master," responded Khalil. 
" Who could refuse you that which belonged to you by 
the grandeur of your views, and by the omnipotence of 
your arms. I have divined this long time your desires 
beneath your silence ; I have all prepared to satisfy on 
an appointed day, your religion, your patriotism, your 
glory. Constantinople or my head is at your feet." 

The next day the Sultan set out with Khalil for Gal- 
lipoli and then proceeded to the village situated on the 
European shore of the Bosphorus at the point which 
formerly gave passage to the Persians of Darius. There 
he ordered Khalil to construct forthwith a fortress in 
front of the Asiatic fortress "constructed twenty years 
before by his ancestor, Bajazet-Ilderim. 

This promontory on the Bosphorus, at a point where 
the channel is not wider than a river and only a few 
miles distant from Constantinople, was admirably chosen 
to extend the limits of the conquest, to wall in the city, 
and to smother it by terror even before being swept by 
the fury of their fiery onslaught. 

With fantastic superstition the Sultan or his architect 
gave the different compartments the form of the letters, 
which in Arabic compose both his name and the name 
of the false prophet, as if to stamp with the very walls 
of a fortress on the soil of Europe, the seal of Islamism, 
and the empire on the last promontory that still shel- 
tered the capital of the Christians. 

The Greek Emperor alarmed at this menace almost 
under the very walls of his capital sent Ambassadors 
who timidly demanded explanations from the Sultan. 

" Of what do you complain ? " replied he, " I form no 



140 OHE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 

project against your city. To provide for the security 
of my dominions is not to infringe the treaties. Have 
you forgotten the extremity to which my father was re- 
duced when your Emperor, leagued against him with 
the Hungarians, sought to hinder him from passing into 
Europe ? His galleys at that time barred the passage 
and Mourad was obliged to claim the aid of the Geno- 
ese. * * * * My father at the battle of Varna vowed 
to construct a fortress on the European shore. This vow 
I fulfil. Have you the right or power to control in this 
manner what are mine ; that of Asia because it is in- 
habited by Ottomans ; that of Europe, because you are 
unable to defend it. 

" Go tell your master that the reigning Sultan is not 
like his predecessors : that their wishes did not go so 
far as does to-day my power. I permit you to retire 
for this time : but I will have the skin flayed off the 
bodies of those who henceforth should have the inso- 
lence of calling me to an account for what I do in my 
own empire." 

A thousand masons and a host of laborers were soon 
at work on this fortress. 

Some Greek peasants, at work in their harvest fields, 
having been slain, Constantine, the Emperor, sent mes- 
sengers to expostulate, and then to add : " If unmerited 
reverses menace the capital of the empire, the Omnipo- 
tent will be the refuge of the Emperor. The inhabi- 
tants will defend themselves by all the means which 
destiny leaves them, so long as God shall not have 
inspired the Sultan with thoughts of justice and 
peace." 

Mohammed II. replied to this adjuration of his jus- 
tice, but by the first cannon shot discharged from the 



THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 141 

fortress, already armed, at a Venetian vessel wishing to 
try if the Bosphorus were still free. 

While Mohammed thus threatened the capital of the 
East the Emperor implored with fervent prayers the 
assistance of earth and heaven. The invisible powers 
seemed deaf to his supplications ; the Powers of Europe 
were stupid, jealous or deaf. Christendom beheld with 
indifference the fall of Constantinople. Some states 
were too weak and others too remote. By some the 
danger was considered imaginary, by others as inevita- 
ble. The western princes were involved in endless 
quarrels ; and the Roman Pontiff was exasperated by 
the falsehood or obstinacy of the Greeks. Thus they 
were left to the tender mercies of the Turks. 

The Sultan and Khalil had already returned to Adri- 
anople to prepare the two hundred thousand men, the 
machines, the arms and the munitions stored in secret 
for the assault. From Germany and Italy were brought 
all the arts and the latest secrets of scientific warfare. 
A cannon founder, Urban, a Hungarian, deserted from 
Constantinople on pretext of poor pay and sought the 
service of the Sultan. 

Mohammed thought nothing dear in exchange for 
Constantinople : and lavished gold and honors on the 
refugee. " Can you found me a piece sufficiently like 
a thunderbolt that a ball launched from it may shake 
the walls of Constantinople ? " 

" I can found you one," replied the Hungarian, " that 
would overthrow the walls of Babylon." 

A foundry was established at Adrianople, the metal 
was prepared, and at the end of three months Urban 
produced a piece of brass ordnance of stupendous and 
almost incredible magnitude. The stone bullet was of 



142 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 

twelve palms circumference and weighed twelve hun- 
dred pounds. Before its trial the population were 
warned of the coming event. The explosion was felt 
or heard in the circuit of an hundred furlongs, the ball 
was driven above a mile and buried itself a fathom in 
the ground. It required a force of a hundred oxen and 
seven hundred men to move it, and nearly two months 
were consumed in dragging it one hundred and fifty 
miles to Constantinople. 

In the spring of .1453 two hundred thousand men 
from Asia, and two hundred thousand from Europe as- 
sembled rapidly in the vast plains that extend from 
Gallipoli to Constantinople under the eye of the Sultan, 
Khalil and his generals. The land and the sea supplied 
them in abundance for all the wants of the army ; 
while a fleet of one hundred and sixty vessels of war, 
many of them but small ones, cruised about in full 
view of the tents upon the sea of Marmora. 

Constantine, the Emperor, must have been mad to 
hope to defend a city some thirteen miles in extent, 
when a careful enumeration showed only four thousand 
nine hundred and seventy Romans : to which were 
added some five or six thousand strangers under the 
command of John Justiniani, a noble Genoese. 

No capital had been more favored by nature than 
Constantinople for defence against the investment and 
the assault of an entire people. Geography had made 
it a citadel, a thousand years of power in its emperors 
and of art in its engineers had completed the work of 
nature. Nature had made a peninsula, policy an is- 
land, the hills a fortress. The Greek Empire as if it 
had foreseen that one day it would fall, seemed to have 
meant to confine all its- monuments, all its masterpieces, 



THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 143 

all its riches in an Acropolis at the extreme point of 
the continent of Europe where it fled the barbarians to 
encounter the Conquerors. 

While fear was falling upon the hearts of Byzantines 
presentiments of glory cheered the hearts of the sol- 
diers of Mohammed through the sole prophecy of the 
Koran. "Know you the city," says the Koran, "of 
which two sides look upon the sea and one side upon 
the land ? It will fall, not beneath the force of the en- 
ginery of war, but before the omnipotence of these 
words : ' There is no other God but God, and God 
alone is great.' " 

Nevertheless the strength of the continuous wall out- 
side of Thrace, flanked with towers and bristling with 
battlements, the great thickness and the height of the 
walls, the site and depth of the trenches, the cincture 
of the waves, the impregnable renown of the city, the 
history of the numerous and fruitless sieges which 
Constantinople had withstood did not leave Mohammed 
and his generals at ease as to the result. Twenty-nine 
times since its foundation had this mistress of the seas 
and of the continents seen an enemy under its walls. 
Constantinople had triumphed in twenty-one. Then 
any day the West might relieve the city through the two 
seas. Mohammed was looking ceaselessly towards the 
sea dreading to see approach through the Dardanelles a 
cloud of Christian sail bringing the courage and skill 
of Europe to the battlefield of Christendom. Oh that 
the wasted warriors of Jerusalem might spring to life 
again and save Europe from the curse of Islam. But 
there was no voice, neither any that regarded. Con- 
% stantinople was left alone in her death agonies. 

The Turkish vanguards soon swept away the towns 



144 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 

and villages as far as the gates of the city and Mo- 
hammed and his army halted at the distance of five 
miles. Thence ordering the final disposition of his 
vast army he marched in battle array, planted the im- 
perial standard before the gate of St. Romanus and on 
the 6th of April, 1453, formed the memorable siege of 
Constantinople. 

The colossal cannon of Adrianople and some others 
of very great size were trained, upon this single gate, 
while eighteen other batteries were placed in a contin- 
uous line along the main wall. On the morning of the 
7th at break of day the fire opened from all these vol- 
canoes and the first great siege conducted with the help 
of heavy artillery had begun. 

The tactics of the Hungarian officer were first to 
batter over a large area the ramparts of the gate of St. 
Romanus and then to shatter the center with the fire 
of the great guns. The charge of the great cannon of 
Urban was five hundred pounds of powder — the ball 
like a mass of rock hurled from a crater on fire made 
the very ground tremble beneath the walls. The entire 
facings of the towers and the bastions crumbled into 
the moat. 

Thus during ten days, while keeping his soldiers be- 
hind the eminences of the ground only as necessary to 
work the batteries, did Mohammed watch the breaches 
being made by the cannon of Urban in the walls, tow- 
ers and gates of Constantinople. But two hours and 
tons of oil were scarce sufficient to cool the bronze gun, 
and only seven or eight shot could be discharged a 
day: but each of these rent the walls like an earth- 
quake. On the tenth day the great gun burst with 
terrific force, hurling the dismembered bodies of its in- 




Explaining the Inplammatoey Placakds. 



THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 147 

ventor and the gunners far over the walls into the 
doomed city. 

Sapping and mining were now resorted to, and mov- 
able towers that could be pushed against the walls 
were provided, having grappling irons and drawbridges 
to let down upon the battlements, across which the 
fierce Janizaries could rush in hand to hand encounter 
with the defenders on or behind the ramparts. 

The hope and heart of Constantine were cheered at 
,last by the sight of an approaching squadron of four- 
teen sail — among them five stout and lofty ships 
guided by skillful pilots and manned by the veterans 
of Italy and Greece long practiced in the arts and perils 
of the sea. The Emperor however fearing to open the 
harbor of the Golden Horn to the fleet of Mohammed, 
kept his own ships safely anchored behind the chains 
that protected the harbor and left these ships to fight 
out the battle alone. 

The ramparts, the camp, the coasts of Asia and 
Europe were lined with multitudes of spectators as 
these ships with joyful shouts sailed down upon the 
hostile fleet of three hundred vessels. Most of these 
however were huge boats crowded with troops but 
without artillery. Those who have in their eye the 
situation of city, harbor and shore, can easily conceive 
the scene and admire the grandeur of the spectacle. 

On came the ships in proud defiance. Their artillery 
swept the waters. Bullets, rocks and Greek fire were 
showered from these floating fortresses upon the huge 
flat galleys of the Turks. The weight of the Venetian 
vessels crushed them like seashells beneath their 
planks. Wielding their helms and sails as skillfully as 
the Turks did their horses, they spread death, disorder 
9 



148 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 

and flight among the hostile fleet and strewed the two 
beaches of Asia and Europe with their wrecks that 
burned as they drifted to the shore. 

In vain Mohammed spurred his horse breast deep 
into the sea and drew his scimiter against the Venetian 
vessels which were fighting but a few yards from him 
in the mouth of the Bosphorus. For a moment his 
cries and his presence encouraged his galleys but they 
were shattered anew. The Greeks struck down the 
iron chains that protected the harbor of the Golden* 
Horn and the Christian ships entered it under full sail 
amid the shouts of soldiers and populace thronging the 
walls of the city. 

Twelve thousand Turks perished in this sea fight. 
The introduction of these supplies revived the hopes 
of the Greeks. The city could easily be saved by the 
sea. A rational and moderate armament of the mari- 
time states might have saved the relics of the Roman 
name and maintained a Christian fortress in the heart 
of the Ottoman Empire. Yet this was the sole and 
feeble attempt to save Constantinople. 

Mohammed, now convinced that a complete invest- 
ment by sea and land was the condition of conquest, 
resolved to conquer nature herself. By means of the 
thousands of wood cutters and miners who followed 
his army, he caused to be levelled and planked in a few 
weeks a road for his galleys and ships over the hills 
and across the valleys into the Golden Horn. Over 
these " ways ' ; which were well greased with ox-fat, a 
part of his fleet were drawn by cables and launched 
into the waters and anchored in the same ba} r with the 
Greek fleet and under the shelter of the Ottoman 
artillery. Then a hundred thousand men were em- 



THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 149 

ployed in making from one bank to the other a bridge 
or causeway of sufficient breadth to permit one hun- 
dred men to inarch abreast to storm the bastions of the 
fort. 

Seven weeks of bombardment on the land side had 
at last opened four immense breaches upon the ruins 
of four towers. Only the moat of great width and 
thirty feet deep protected the assault of four hundred 
thousand men from the ten thousand combatants of 
Constantine that were extended along the walls for 
more than three miles. 

The Sultan was desirous of sparing the blood of his 
soldiers, now that the city lay at his mercy, of securing 
the Byzantine treasures as well and accordingly sent 
an envoy to appeal from the courage of the Emperor to 
the cowardice of the Greeks. The avarice of the Sultan 
might have been satisfied with the annual tribute of one 
hundred thousand ducats ; but his ambition grasped the 
capital of the East. He guaranteed the Empire the 
absolute and independent sovereignty of the Pelopon- 
nesus, the property of all the inhabitants of Constanti- 
nople subject only to tribute if he would surrender. 

The reply was grandly heroic and stoical, not to say 
Christian. It was sad, hopeless, yet grand and digni- 
fied. He said that he would give thanks to God if 
Mohammed really inclined, in according him a sure and 
honorable peace, to spare his nation the catastrophes 
that weighed upon it. * * * That he was ready to dis- 
cuss with the Sultan the conditions of a treat}' as from 
prince to prince or even the conditions of a tribute of 
war imposed by the strong upon the weak : — but that 
no human force and no personal advantage would ever 
make him consent to give up to the enemy of the 



150 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 

Christian name an empire and a capital, which he had 
sworn to his God, to his people and to himself, not to 
deliver, but with his life." 

These words, too noble, too elevated for the rest of 
Christian Europe were most irritating to the impatient 
Sultan who, guided by his favorite science of astrology, 
fixed on the twenty -ninth day of May as the fortu- 
nate and fatal hour. 

Several days were given to preparations for the as- 
sault. The Sultan proclaimed it throughout the camps, 
and dervishes, fired their religious fanaticism by going 
through the ranks and haranguing the Moslems : "It 
was the last step of Islam in Europe to sweep off the 
last focus of idolatry on the two continents. Their 
bows and their scimiters were the weapons of Allah the 
true God. Those who vanquish in his name will pos- 
sess the earth; those who fall will possess the houris 
and the fountains of Paradise." 

On the eve of the day of the assault an illumination 
of joy suddenly lighted up the camps of the Ottomans 
from the hills of the Bosphorus of Europe to the sea of 
Marmora. Every soldier had his torch of resinous 
pine, and thousands of fires burned all night long, and 
the three contiguous seas were reddened with an an- 
ticipated reflection of the conflagration of the doomed 
city. 

Constantinople lighted up as it were by its own fun- 
eral pyre watched and wept and prayed during the 
night. Endless processions of priests monks, nuns, and 
other women thronged the streets chanting with mourn- 
ful voice, " Kyrie Eleison. Lord, have mercy. Lord, 
rise in our defence." The whole city ran to the altars; 
no one except Constantino and his few soldiers ran to 



THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 151 

arms : and he was everywhere posting his generals and 
giving orders for the morrow. 

The morning dawned with the four hundred thou- 
sand men in order of battle. The disciplined and 
veteran troops were carefully arranged in several lines 
of battle, Mohammed himself at the center and in 
their front with his twenty thousand Janizaries waiting 
for the decisive moment to arrive. 

Between the city and the camp were the two hun- 
dred thousand motley volunteers whom he would send 
first into the battle to tire the defenders and fill the 
trenches with their dead bodies. 

Constantine went with the nobles of his court to the 
Church of St. Sophia seeking to draw from the religion 
of his fathers the courage and perhaps the fortune of 
saving its altars. 

He attended a short service, as if it were his own 
funeral service. He received communion from the 
hands of the Patriarch ; made with tears a public con- 
fession of his sins to which the sobbings of the people 
were the only audible response. After this he repaired 
to his palace, his household and his family, where says 
one of his auditors in his farewell, he pronounced the 
funeral oration of the Greek Empire. He then threw 
aside the robes of royalty, keeping on only his shoes 
embroided with a golden eagle, and his purple mantle, 
mounted on horseback in the costume of a private 
soldier, and went forth for the last time to battle in the 
front ranks of the defenders of the faith. 

Such men only four hundred years ago did Western 
Christian Europe willingly let die when she failed to 
stand beside him to beat back the Turkish hordes and 
warriors to their desert plains in Asia. 



152 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 

Mohammed II. then proclaimed to his army as if to 
excite every fiercest passion in the breast of his men, 
that the entire city was devoted to spoil, and the in- 
habitants to slavery or death. " The city and public 
buildings are mine ; but I abandon to you the captives 
and the booty, the precious metals and beautiful 
women ; be rich and happy. The provinces of my Em- 
pire are numerous, the intrepid soldier who first mounts 
the walls of Constantinople shall be governor of the 
most delightful and opulent of them all, and such will 
be my gratitude that he will obtain more wealth and 
honor than he can dream of." 

Mohammed thus fired all the cruel passions of the 
undisciplined hosts of his vanguard. 

Neither pen nor tongue can fly fast enough to de- 
scribe the wild impetuosity of their attack as they pre- 
cipitated themselves upon the reverse side of the moat, 
one hundred feet wide and six thousand paces long. 
The stone, the earth, the wood these carried were not 
sufficient to fill this mighty trench. The cannon and 
the sharpshooters behind the ramparts still existing, 
strewed thousands of Turks on the back of the exterior 
ditch. The smoke of the Greek artillery rolled back 
upon the combatants, so that the gunners and archers 
of Constantine could take aim only by the noise against 
the hosts of their invisible assailants. In vain the bul- 
lets and the grape shot filled the trenches with the 
Turks : these masses of men, pushed forward by their 
mere impetus, rushed headlong into the water and 
formed with the dead and dying a causeway of human 
bodies about the gateway of St. Romanus, which sup- 
plied a bridge for the battalions that pressed behind. 

After this sacrifice of the " Scum of the Army," thus 



THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 153 

put to death to secure victory, the three columns of the 
regular army, comprising two hundred and sixty thou- 
sand men, advanced in profound silence to the assault. 
The force of the fire of the nine thousand brave de- 
fenders was already exhausted by this desperate strug- 
gle of two hours. To protect them was this ditch now 
nearly filled up with earth and men and crumbling 
walls. The purple mantle of Constantine, as he ap- 
peared momentarily on the summits of the shattered 
walls, served as a target for the Tartars, and an inspira- 
tion to the Spartans and Italians inside. Strong yet in 
their broken walls, in their towers and in their artillery, 
in their despair- they repulsed the mad rushes of these 
torrents of men as with wild cries, under cover of 
clouds of arrows and with glistening scimiters they 
charged again and again along the whole line on port 
and continent. For three terrible hours the carnage 
continued, and fifty thousand Ottomans rolled into the 
ditches or into the sea. The huge balls of Constantine 
tearing into these solid columns piled the ground with 
dead ; stones, rocks, beams and Greek fire, crushed, 
burned, and mutilated those who tried to scale those 
wrecks of towers. 

The three column heads halted, wavered and ebbed 
a moment towards the camp of Mohammed. A shout 
of victory rose from behind the ramparts, and a chant- 
ing of hymns from the heart of the city. Constantine 
hurried from gate to gate to encourage the hope of his 
soldiers, who were done nearly to death. 

But their joy was vanishing. Mohammed wavered 
only a moment, then stirred by the cries of his Jani- 
zaries, who still stood motionless about his tent, yet 
burning with fury to avenge the rebuff of the army, he 



154 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 

turned and launched them like a mighty thunderbolt to 
the deserted center of attack — the gate of St. Romanus. 

The presence of the Sultan brandishing his battle - 
mace, the shame of forsaking their sovereign, the re- 
proaches of the Janizaries rallied the shaken columns 
and the battle was on as fierce as ever. Mohammed 
promised a kingdom to the first man who should take 
and hold a rampart. 

At this juncture his heroic Justiniani fled his stand- 
ard, though the Emperor pleaded with him by the panic 
that would follow his flight; but there may be bounds 
to human courage when men fight for glory, and not 
for country or for faith, and he fled.- It proved the 
rout of the besieged. 

The Italians followed their general. The Janizaries, at 
fearful loss, swarmed over the walls. Constantine, fling- 
ing off his purple mantle and retaining but the arms 
and the uniform of a common soldier, that it might not 
be mutilated, fought to the last breath between the 
inner and the outer wall at the breach of the gate of 
St. Romanus, that the Turks might enter the imperial 
city only upon the dead body of its fallen Emperor. 
Thus did Constantine by his heroic death put to eter- 
nal contrast and eternal shame the dastardly degener- 
acy of his own nation and the miserable cowardice and 
selfishness of the Christian nations of western Europe. 

The story is soon finished. As the troops rushed 
through and over the deserted walls, a hundred thou- 
sand panic stricken men and women fled to the church 
of St. Sophia. The sight of this unarmed and helpless 
multitude disarmed the fury of the soldiers, who, re- 
membering the promises of the Sultan, began each to 
seize his captives and his. The Greeks held out their 



THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 155 

hands to be tied with cords or saddle girths ; women 
and girls were tied by their girdles or their veils. Nuns 
were torn from the altars and from their convents with 
naked bosoms, outstretched hands and dishevelled hair. 
The cries of mothers, children and nuns were heart- 
rending: even the Ottomans themselves were affected by 
it. Yet sixty thousand captives thus bound came forth 
from convent, hovel, or from palace, traversed for the 
last time the streets of their desolated city to be carried 
into captivity into all the cities and the tents of Asia. 

The pillage lasted eight hours without exhausting 
the riches of an empire. The coined treasure was more 
than four million ducats, the uncoined gold, silver, 
pearls, diamonds, vases and ornaments of palaces and 
churches was incalculable. One hundred and twenty 
thousand manuscripts warmed the' baths of the barbar- 
ians. But at the close of the day Mohammed entered 
at the head of his Janizaries to restore order. He pro- 
ceeded at once to the Church of St. Sophia. The sol- 
diers were still engaged in pillaging its treasures: and 
one of the barbarians even in his presence continued 
the work of destroying a precious marble of the sanctu- 
ary. Mohammed struck him a blow with his club say- 
ing: " I have abandoned you the slaves and the treas- 
ures, but the monuments belong to me." The soldier 
was borne off dying from the church. 

Accustomed to Arabian and barbarian magnificer.ee 

— Constantinople dazzled him as she sat in her grandeur 

the Queen of two continents on the shores of the Bos- 

phorus : — 

" Earth hath no fairer sight to show 
Than this blue strait, whose waters flow, 
Bordered with vineyards, summer bowers, 
White palaces and ived towers." 



156 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 

Mohammed after having admired the grandeur of the 
edifice, the elevation of the dome — a second temple up- 
held in air by one hundred columns of porphyry, of 
rose-colored marble or serpentine, mounted the altar 
and offered a Mussulman prayer : then ordered that 
this church, the most magnificent and majestic which 
Christianity had yet constructed should become the 
first Mosque of the Conquerors of Constantinople. The 
cross was torn down, the pictures of the saints de- 
stined, and Muezzins mounting to the dome chanted 
for the first time to the desert streets of the Metropolis 
of Christianity in the East, the well-known call: "God 
is God ; God is great ; Come to prayer." 

As the architects in his presence began to remove 
the mosaics of colored glass which formed the pictures 
in the ceiling we are told that Mohammed cried out: 
" Stop, confine yourselves to covering over these mo- 
saics with a coat of lime so that they may not scandalize 
the believers but do not tear from the ceilings these 
marvelous incrustations. Who knows but that they 
may be uncovered at some future day in another change 
of fortune and of destination of this temple." 

That hour of Destiny has not yet struck the hour of 
deliverance, and the lime still covers the walls and the 
Muezzins still call the faithful to prayer above the noise 
and din of the busy streets of a fallen city once the 
glory of a Christian Empire. 

From St. Sophia Mohammed proceeded to the august 
but desolate palace of a hundred successors of the great 
Constantine but which in a few hours had been stripped 
of its pomp of royalty. A passing reflection on the 
vanity and vicissitudes of human greatness caused him 
to repeat an elegant distich of Persian poetry : — 



THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 157 

" The spider has woven his net in the imperial palace ; 
and the owl hath sung her watch-song on the towers of 
Afrasiab." 

The fifth day after the conquest he consecrated by a 
formal act the liberty of conscience accorded by the 
Koran to the vanquished. He claimed for the Mussul- 
mans only half the churches leaving the rest to the 
Christians. The patriarch Gennadius led in pomp to 
the palace clothed in his pontifical robes and in the 
midst of a cortege of priests, received from him the 
investiture of the patriarchate. "It is my wish," said 
the Sultan, "to give the Christians and their pontiffs 
the same rights and the same protection that they en- 
joyed under your emperors." He even attended in 
person the pomps and ceremonies of the Christians, as 
an impartial of the two religions which henceforth were 
to divide his people. 

Before the death of Mohammed in 1459, by his many 
conquests of the neighboring states and peoples he had 
consolidated his empire : and it stood forth a fearless 
conqueror until in 1571 the battle of Lepanto marked 
the turning point in the history of the Ottoman power. 

We here turn aside for a brief hour from the stream 
of historical narrative to consider some of the results 
of Ottoman misrule which has for more than four cen- 
turies controlled an empire in Eastern Europe almost as 
large as France, in one of the most delightful and beauti- 
fully varied regions on the continent and which yet 
holds its peoples in the relentless grip of the Dark 
Ages. 

Weighed in the balances of the humanity, the cul- 
ture, the Christianity and the civilization of the dawn- 
ing century, Turkey is in every way found wanting 



158 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 

and soon may appear the hand of fire to write on the 
black pages of her awful atrocities, " Thy days are 
numbered. Thy kingdom shall be destroyed and given 
to another." How long shall the blood of her slain cry 
aloud in the ears of Christendom, yet in vain still cry 
aloud ? The consciences of England and America must 
give answer to that cry of blood or be themselves 
weighed in the balances in the day of the Lord at 
hand. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE BULGARIAN MASSACRE. 

We must pass over in silence a period of four hun- 
dred years in the history of the Ottoman Empire to 
open its blood-stained pages in our own era at the nar- 
rative of the Bulgarian massacres. The centuries and 
the peoples have been under the rule of the barbarian; 
the story is one of continued persecution, outrage, and 
massacre. The Turk never changes. What he has 
always done he always will do. And as long as any 
Christian lands or people remain under his power and 
at his mercy, so long will there be discontents, disturb- 
ances, revolts and massacres. The only way to end 
these is to end the rule of the Turk. Reform — not to 
say regeneration, is an impossibility. He is an alien in 
race and religion. His spirit is fierce and fanatical: 
his rule that of the dark ages, the rule of a tyrant with- 
out conscience or remorse. 

In the early part of this century the oppression of 
:he Turk became unbearable, and throughout the empire 
the Greek Christians rose in rebellion. 

Europe was at last horrified by the massacre on the 
island of Chios, April 11, 1822, when the entire popula- 
tion of forty thousand Greeks was put to the sword. 
Bravely did the Greeks fight for their freedom. The 
Sultan called to his aid the Khedive of Egypt, and for 
three years did they ravage Crete and the Pelopon- 
nesus, committing every crime and fiendish outrage 

(159) 



160 THE BULGARIAN MASSACRE. 

that even a Turk could think of from 1824 to 1827. 
At last Byron roused the spirit of England. The 
patience of Europe was worn out. England, France 
and Russia united to crush the power of the barbarian 
and to set free his victims, as the wild beast would not 
let go his prey till it was dragged out of his teeth. 

In November, 1827, was* fought the great battle of 
Navarino. The Turkish and Egyptian fleet was de- 
stroyed. Greece was saved. 

The Russian protectorate over the Eastern Christians 
was confirmed and renewed : and also her right to free 
navigation in the Black Sea and the straits. Scarcely 
had this " fit of generous enthusiasm on behalf of the. 
struggling Greeks" passed, than England under another 
minister began to regret the part she had taken. The 
glorious victory of Navarino was spoken of as an " un- 
toward event." Austria and France shared in her 
misgivings. She suddenly began to talk about the 
necessity of muzzling the Russian Bear, and upholding 
Turkey in behalf of British interests. 

Ostensibly through fear of Russian aggression, but 
really from the preponderance of commercial interests, 
England has now for more than sixty years been the 
upholder and defender of the Turkish government. 
The sarcasm of Freeman, the historian, is cutting and 
pitiless as he reviews the policy of England up to the 
hour of the terrible outrages perpetrated against the 
Bulgarians, and her crime against humanity that fol- 
lowed the fall of Plevna. 

Through fear of Russia, England induced the powers 
to sign a convention in 1841 by which it was agreed that 
no foreign fleets should enter the straits in time of peace. 

The result of this convention was to shut up the 



THE BULGARIAN MASSACRE. 161 

fleet of Russia in the Black Sea, making of it to her, 
merely an inland lake. 

By a successful stroke of policy Louis Napoleon III., 
President of the Republic of France, had himself elected 
Emperor in November, 1852. To signalize his accession 
he sought to pose as an ally of England. It was his 
policy to pick quarrels with the great military powers 
of Europe and then get some other nation to help him 
out. He began with Russia over the holy shrines in 
Jerusalem by seeking to have the privileges of the 
Latin Church enlarged. The Greek Church appealed to 
the Czar of Russia, the head of the Church, and then it 
was carried to the Porte. 

In the spring of 1853, Prince Menchikoff was sent to 
Constantinople. Firstly, to negotiate on the question 
of the shrines, which question was settled with Russia's 
acquiescence. Secondly, to extract from Porte a note 
confirming the treaties that had conferred on Russia 
the Protectorate of the Christians of the Ottoman 
Empire. 

The second demand was made necessar} r by the re- 
newed exactions under which some of these populations 
were then suffering: as it "happened," says an English 
writer, that Omar Pacha, at the head of a Turkish 
force, was operating against the Christians of Mon- 
tenegro. And something of the sort was always hap- 
pening somewhere. For the Turkish policy towards 
the Christian has always been the same from the begin- 
ning of its power and will continue the same to the end. 

When the English Ambassador, Lord Stratford cle 
Redcliffe, returned to Constantinople, in April, 1853, 
after an absence of eight months, he was directed " to 
warn the Porte that the accumulated grievances of 



162 THE BULGARIAN MASSACRE. 

foreign nations which the Porte is unable or unwilling 
to redress, the mal-adniinistration of its own affairs 
* * * may lead to a general revolt among the Chris- 
tian subjects of the Porte * * that perseverance in 
his (the Sultan's) present conduct must end in alienat- 
ing the sympathies of the British nation and make it 
impossible for Her Majesty's government to overlook 
the exigencies of Christendom exposed to the natural 
consequence of his unwise policy and reckless mal- 
administration." 

The demand of Russia was refused and Prince 
Menchikoff left Constantinople May 21st, 1853. 

A few days later the Sultan issues a firman in which 
he promises again that he will maintain all the rights 
and privileges of the Greek Christians, and appeals to 
his allies. 

He was merely throwing dust in the air for the wind 
to blow away, though he thought he could fool Europe 
with his waste breath. 

On the 13th of June the allied English and French 
fleets anchored in Besika Bay, the nearest point they 
could reach without the violation of the treaties. 

The Czar Nicholas at once ordered his army to cross 
the Pruth and enter Moldavia, July 2d. Yet this oc- 
cupation of Moldavia and Wallachia could not be con- 
sidered an invasion of the Ottoman territory, nor a 
" Casus belli, per se," for these provinces were autono- 
mous and under Russian protection since the treaty of 
Bucharest, while according to the same treaty the 
Turks had no right to send troops into their territory. 

The unanimous judgment of Europe was expressed 
in what is known as the " Vienna Note " and in urging 
its acceptance upon the Porte they practically acknowl- 



THE BULGARIAN MASSACRE. 165 

edged the justice of the Czar's demand and signed their 
own condemnation in the war that ensued. 

VIENNA NOTE. 

"The government of His Majesty, the Sultan, will 
remain faithful to the letter and to the spirit of the 
treaties of Kainardji and. Adrianople regarding the pro- 
tection of the Christian Church." 

Now the English Ambassador had received, instruc- 
tions to bring his whole influence to bear upon the 
Turks, "and to impress them with the strong and earn- 
est manner in which the Vienna Note was recommended 
to the acceptance of the Porte, not only by Her Maj- 
esty's government, but also by the Cabinets of Austria, 
France and Prussia." 

Before the presentation of the " Vienna Note " Lord 
Stratford had informed the Porte with much circum- 
stance and in his most impressive manner that the 
British fleet in Besika Bay was at his disposal; while 
therefore he read his instructions with most per- 
functory obedience to the Ottoman Cabinet, his whole 
demeanor was urging them to disregard the note. 

The duplicity of the French Emperor was more 
culpable as before the rejection of the Vienna Note 
and while the powers were still deliberating in concert 
he craftily succeeded in drawing England into a special 
alliance with France: and on receipt of some hys- 
terical despatch from his Ambassador he insisted with 
the English cabinet that it was " indispensably neces- 
sary " that their combined fleets should, in violation of 
the convention of 1841 enter the straits before there 
had been a declaration of war on any side. That very 
day without asking any information from the English 



166 THE BULGARIAN MASSACRE. 

Ambassador Lord Clarendon telegraphed to Lord Strat- 
ford: "Your Excellency is instructed to send for the 
British fleet to Constantinople." 

The Sultan now amended the u Vienna Note " by in- 
serting the words, " by the Sublime Porte," which com- 
pletely destroyed the power of the existing treat}', 
making it read : " The government of His Majesty the 
Sultan, will remain faithful to the stipulations of the 
treaty of Kainardji, confirmed by that of Adrianople 
regarding the protection, ' by the Sublime Porte' of 
the Christian religion." 

In other words, the wolf solemnly engaged to pro- 
tect the lambs for himself, and all the world knows what 
that means: and we know it now in 1896 by forty years 
more of broken promises and horrible atrocities. What 
insane folly to believe the Turk. The Czar did not, 
and rejected the amended note. 

Seven days after his rejection of the Sultan's pro- 
posal in obedience to the telegram from Lord Clarendon 
two English and two French ships entered the Dardan- 
elles on September 14th, and on the strength of their 
presence and implied support, the Sultan declared war 
against Russia on- the fifth of October, 1853. Thus did 
Louis Napoleon III. precipitate England into what 
Count Nesselrode declared to be the most unjustifiable 
and the most unintelligible of wars. 

Czar Nicholas replied to this, by a counter declara- 
tion of war on November 1st, 1853, solemnly declaring 
to the Powers of Europe " that the sole aim of his en- 
deavors was to assure the rights of his co-religionists, 
and to protect them from every form of oppression." 

The work of two centuries was undone for Russia. 
She lost the Black Sea and the protectorate of the 



THE BULGARIAN MASSACRE. 167 

Christians of the Ottoman empire that she had wrung 
from the Porte by a succession of victorious cam- 
paigns. Instead of the powerful champion which they 
lost the poor Christians of the empire were granted an- 
other firman in which the Sultan repeated all his lying 
promises of former years. Not only so but the powers 
bound themselves not to interfere with the internal ad- 
ministration of affairs in the Turkish Empire. 

The Christian nations in solemn treaty pledged them- 
selves to let the Turk do what he would with the peo- 
ple under his yoke and promised that they would do 
nothing to help them. They disclaimed any right to 
interfere with the relations existing between the Sultan 
and his subjects : the relations between the robber and 
his victim, the master and the slave, the tyrant and the 
oppressed. 

Future generations will stand aghast at the hideous 
spectacle of three civilized nations fighting side by side 
with and for barbarian Moslems to crush the noble 
champion of their fellow Christians and fellow slaves 
compelled by their victories to languish beneath the 
yoke of these savage aliens. 

All reverence to the heroes of the Light Brigade 

" Stormed at with shot and shell, 
Boldly they rode and well ; 
Into the jaws of Death 
Iuto the mouth of Hell 
Rode the six hundred." 

All reverence to millions of others, who at the voice 
of command if not of duty, gave themselves up for an 
unholy cause and perished by thousands of hunger and 
cold and disease on the bleak shores of the Crimea. 

Froude says " that the whole power of England and 



168 THE BULGARIAN MASSACRE. 

France supported passively by Austria, and actively by 
Sardinia and Turkey, succeeded with communications, 
secure and rapid with every advantage for procuring 
supplies, in partially conquering a single stronghold. 
It was a great victory but it was achieved at a cost to 
England alone of eighty millions (sterling) of money 
and perhaps fifty thousand lives." 

While Alexander writes (Manifesto 1856), " For 
eleven months Sebastopol was held against the allied 
aggressors : and in the whole empire from the shores of 
the Pacific to the Baltic, one thought, one resolution 
was dominant to fulfil duty, to protect the Fatherland 
at any cost of property and life. Husbandmen who 
had never left the fields they cultivated hastened to 
take up arms for the holy struggle and were not in- 
ferior to experienced warriors in bravery and renuncia- 
tion." 

And this war was fought by France and England, 
not in the cause of freedom ; not to redress the wrongs 
of the oppressed ; not to help forward the wheels of 
progress. No, but to pave the way for the bloody atroc- 
ities which in 1876 called forth one long cry of hor- 
ror and indignation throughout Christendom, while 
these in turn were to pale before the horrors of 1895-6 
to which commercial England has turned a deaf ear, 
leaving Armenia helpless in the jaws of the wolf. 

The Crimean War as fostered by England and 
France with the avowed purpose of upholding the 
power of the Turk really brought into action two new 
elements of weakness. First: up to 1856 Turkey had 
been free from foreign creditors, but the opening of the 
Dardanelles brought commerce and a foreign loan, and 
on the steps of indebtedness followed extravagance, 



THE BULGARIAN MASSACRE. 169 

speculation and national bankruptcy. The most wan- 
ton and unbridled extravagance reigned at the palace. 
The corruptions produced by the foreign loans found 
their way into every artery of the state and poisoned the 
very existence of the country. New loans could only 
be obtained by promises which it was impossible to ful- 
fil and which were made without any intention of 
carrying them out. 

The navy was improved, the soldiers were better 
armed ; a large part of the money was squandered on 
absurd building projects ; while vast sums were spent 
on precious stones and personal pleasures. 

These loans were liberally subscribed in England, 
and Englishmen helped the Sultan to spend it lavishly. 
The origin of the troubles of 1876-7 in Bosnia and 
Herzegovina was said to be the heavy burden of the in- 
creased taxes imposed to pay the expenses of a visit to 
the Paris Exposition, and the European capitals in 1867 
made by the Sultan accompanied by his son, two 
nephews and an expensive suite. 

But a second and more dangerous evil was this : — 
The self-exclusion of any right of interference on the 
part of the Powers threw the control of affairs into the 
hands of a ring in whose power the Sultan has been 
but little more than a puppet as the events of recent 
years have clearly shown. 

In 1875 the situation was thus reviewed by Glad- 
stone, sincerely penitent for the part he had taken in 
the Crimean War. " Twenty years ago," he said, 
" France and England determined to try a great exper- 
iment in remodeling the administrative system of Tur- 
key with the hope of curing its intolerable deficiencies. 
For this purpose having defended her integrity they 



170 THE BULGARIAN MASSACRE. 

made also her independence secure, and they devised at 
Constantinople the reforms which were publicly enacted 
in an imperial Firman or Hati Humayoun." 

" The successes of the Crimean War purchased * * * 
by a vast expenditure of French and English life and 
treasure gave to Turkey, for the first time, perhaps, in 
her blood-stained history, twenty years of repose not 
disturbed either by herself or by any foreign power. 
The Cretan insurrection imparted a shock to confidence 
but it was composed and Turkey was again trusted. 
The insurrections of 1875, much more thoroughly exam- 
ined, have disclosed the total failure of the Porte to ful- 
fil the engagements which she had contracted under 
circumstances peculiarly binding on interest, on honor 
and on gratitude." 

So totally, indeed, had the Turks failed to keep any 
of their promises of reform and so hopeless did the 
condition of these hapless Christians appear, that they 
at first refused the mediation of the Powers, declaring 
that they preferred death to Turkish rule. 

" If you are not willing to help us to attain our lib- 
erty," they said, " at least you can not compel us to 
enter into slavery again. We will never fall into the 
hands of the Turks alive." 

About this time Turkey partially repudiated her na- 
tional debt, pledging for the payment of the interest 
for some five } 7 ears the tribute from Egypt and the to- 
bacco revenue. Bondholders became aroused. Com- 
mercial interests, not interests of humanity, prompted 
some action ; for if the Christians, who are the culti- 
vators of the soil, were exterminated, what would be- 
come of their per cents.? 

The Powers intervened by the Protocol, known as 



THE BULGARIAN MASSACRE. 171 

the Andrassy Note, which proposed among others the 
following measures : — 

1. Religious liberty, full and entire. 

2. Abolition of the farming of taxes. 

3. A law to guarantee that the direct taxation of 
Bosnia and the Herzegovina should be employed for 
the immediate interests of the provinces. 

4. A special commission composed of an equal num- 
ber of Mussulmans and Christians to superintend the 
execution of the reforms proclaimed and proposed. 

5. The amelioration of the rural population. 

The representatives of the six powers under instruc- 
tions from their governments supported these measures 
of reform before the Porte, all of them heartily, except 
the English minister, Sir Henry Elliott, who acting 
evidently under secret instructions, expressed his belief 
that they would amount to nothing ; and his fear that 
they trenched upon the right of the Ottoman Porte to 
manage its own affairs without foreign interference. 
The Grand Vizier did not reject them, but replied 
that he was preparing a constitution which would, 
he believed, embody these and other measures of 
reform. 

The Powers believed or affected to believe these 
brilliant promises. England even tendered to the 
Sultan the cordial expression of her hopes that " he 
would soon succeed in quelling the revolts of his sub- 
jects and restoring order." And this meant, as England 
ought to have known and as all the world knows now, 
that the Turks might put it down in the only way the 
Turk ever does put down a rebellion — with fiercest 
cruelty. It meant liberty from British interference 
while they proceeded to slay, kill, torture, burn, out- 



172 THE BULGARIAN MASSACRE. 

rage, violate men, women and children with fiendish 
lust and delight. 

These promises of reform were made February 10, 
1876, and the Turks answer to the cordial expression 
of the hope of England that they would soon succeed in 
quelling the revolts of his subjects, was the awful 
Bulgarian horrors executed by the orders of the Porte 
during the first two weeks in May. 

The whole civilized world shuddered. Just as the 
gates of the Centennial were being thrown open to 
welcome the nations to the celebration of the glorious 
victories of peace and the triumphs of art, the unspeak- 
able Turk let loose upon the defenceless Bulgarians the 
Basbi-Bazouks. These were irregular troops, the 
scum and offscouring of the Oriental cities, gathered 
from the prisons, jails and slums : the vilest wretches to 
be found on the face of the earth without military 
knowledge, ability, courage or discipline — men fit only 
for the work of murder, lust, rapine and cruelty on 
which they were sent by the Sublime Porte, the In- 
fernal Tyrant. 

On the 14th of May, 1876, the representatives of 
Russia, Austria, Hungary, and Germany met at Berlin 
without any knowledge of the massacres, and desirous 
of sustaining the good intentions of the Grand Vizier, 
agreed upon the paper known as the '.' Berlin Memo 
randum " which provided for a guaranty by the great 
Powers of the several reforms which had been pro- 
claimed, but were not yet put in force. Five of the 
Powers signed it, but Great Britain refused, on the 
ground that it must obviously and inevitably lead to 
the military occupation of Turkey." Miserable subter- 
fuge — didn't she " occupy Egypt " a little later to secure 



THE BULGARIAN MASSACRE. 173 

the payment of the interest on her bonds: but she had 
no " interest " in breaking the bonds and chains of 
Christian populations of Turkey. She knew very well 
that the Sublime Porte would never execute a reform 
except under compulsion. 

The action of the British Ministry greatly encouraged 
the Turks, and gave them very naturally the impression 
that England sympathized with them, and would help 
them to subjugate the Christian races. 

The British Ministry at first professed ignorance of 
the massacres : then thought the Bulgarians as much to 
blame as the Turk — the lamb as the wolf that devoured 
him — the helpless, disarmed Armenians as the Turkish 
soldiers that swept down upon them from the mountains 
— and at last compelled to acknowledge the enormity 
of the conduct of the Turks, said they had been greatly 
provoked by the Russian emissaries who were stirring 
up revolution among the Christians. 

Instantly Great Britain sent her Mediterranean fleet 
again to Besika Bay, where it arrived May 21st, only 
seven days from the first meeting of the Powers. The 
Minister said it was to protect English subjects, the 
Turks said it was to protect them. From what, pray ? 
It was never clearly explained why ; but it looked then 
and it looks now as if England were ready to champion 
the Turk as she had done in the Crimean War. It 
must have made every Englishman with a conscience 
or heart in him, blush for shame that the Turks them- 
selves and all the rest of the world took it for granted 
that the presence of this fleet in Turkish waters was a 
friendly demonstration on the part of the English 
towards the Sultan : that in fact they were going to 



174 THE BULGARIAN MASSACRE. 

stand by and keep off the great Powers while the Turks 
continued to "restore order." 

The English people however were roused to such in- 
dignation by these massacres and by the course of the 
government, that under the lead of Mr. Gladstone they 
very soon made their Ministers understand that they 
were not at liberty to sustain Turkey in such acts of 
oppression or to alienate the friendship of Russia. 

Great men like John Bright, always the friend of 
Russia, Gladstone, Freeman and others publicly de- 
nounced England as the accomplice of the Turks in 
their deeds of horror by the moral and material sup- 
port she had so freely given them in recent years. 

We need not trace the details of these horrors here 
but quote the eloquent and stirring language of the 
greatest statesman of the age : — 

" There has been perpetrated," said Gladstone, " un- 
der the authority of a Government to which all the 
time we have been giving the strongest moral support 
and for part of the time material support, crimes and 
outrages so vast in scale as to exceed all modern ex- 
amples and so unutterably vile as well as fierce in char- 
acter that it passes the power of heart to conceive and 
of tongue and pen adequately to describe them. These 
are the Bulgarian horrors. There is not a criminal in 
a European jail ; there is not a cannibal in the South 
Sea Islands whose indignation would not arise and 
overboil at the recital of that which has been done, 
which has been too late examined but which remains 
unavenged — which has left behind the fierce passions 
that produced it and which may spring up in another 
murderous harvest from the soil reeked with blood and 
in the air tainted with every imaginable deed of crime 



THE BULGARIAN MASSACRE. 175 

and shame. That such things should be done is a 
damning disgrace to the portion of our race that did 
them ; that a door should be left open for their ever so 
barely possible repetition would spread that shame 
over the whole." 

Grand and noble words and yet the hand of the 
English Government not only left that door open but 
fastened it open and kept it open till again in Armenia 
the Bulgarian horrors were reproduced on a vaster and 
more terrible scale if the Turk ever can be worse than 
the history of centuries has so often declared and re- 
vealed him. 

The Turkish government made some feeble attempts 
to disavow the Bulgarian atrocities. But the Turk is 
an unmitigated liar. Freeman, the historian does not 
hesitate to say that the Ring at Constantinople worked 
with a deliberate policy to oppress and if possible to 
destroy the whole Bulgarian people. The first means 
they took was to plant large colonies of savage Circas- 
sians in Bulgaria who were allowed to commit any kind 
of outrage on their defenceless Christian neighbors 
without redress. They could drive the Christians from 
their homes, rob their houses, destroy their crops, ravish 
their women, and if any dared to resist their violence 
they were killed without hesitation. If any dared to 
complain against the Circassians they were summarily 
punished. But worse than this was the quartering of 
Turkish troops upon the peasants and the landholders 
whose dastardly outrages upon the wives and daughters 
of the Bulgarians were fiendish and constant. Neither 
woman's honor nor human life was safe where they 
were. 

When flesh and blood could bear no more there was 



176 THE BULGARIAN MASSACRE. 

some slight uprising of an unarmed people and then 
the fury of Circassian and of Bashi-Bazouk was let 
loose upon them. 

Freeman says again, " there can be no doubt that the 
massacre was deliberately ordered by the Ring at Con- 
stantinople, the Highnesses and the Excellencies of 
polite diplomacy. This is proved by the fact that they 
honored and decorated the chief doers of the massacre, 
while they neglected and sometimes punished those 
Turkish officers who acted at all in a humane way. 
To this day (April, 1877) in defiance of all remon- 
strances from the European powers, the chief doers of 
the massacres remain unpunished, while we still hear 
of Bulgarians being punished for their share in the at- 
tempt to free their country." 

For a true statement of some of the facts in the case, 
for the full truth can never be told, the world is in- 
debted to the Government of the United States, which 
sent a special commission of inquiry to Bulgaria, and 
History will owe them a debt of gratitude for having 
furnished reliable documents on this matter in which 
every European State was more or less exposed to an 
imputation of bias. As Mr. Gladstone observed : 
" America had neither alliances with Turkey nor 
grudges against her nor purposes to gain by her de- 
struction. She entered into this matter simply on the 
ground of its broad human character and moment. She 
had no ' American interests ' to tempt her from her in- 
tegrity and to vitiate her aims." 

Mr. Eugene Schuyler, American Secretar} r of Lega- 
tion at Constantinople, who visited the ruined villages 
in July and August, 1876, made his report to the 
United States Minister Plenipotentiary November 20th. 



THE BULGARIAN MASSACRE. 177 

In that report he says that "in the districts he visited 
at least nine thousand houses were burned, seventy-two 
thousand persons were left without roof or shelter and 
ten thousand nine hundred and eighty-four persons 
were numbered as killed. Many more were killed in 
the roads, in the fields, in the mountains ; so that he 
numbers the slain at about fifteen thousand, — but adds 
many more died subsequently from disease, exposure 
and in prison." He says that he could only find proof 
of the death of one hundred and fifteen Mussulmans. 
" Neither Turkish women nor Turkish children were 
killed in cold blood. No Mussulman women were 
violated. No Mussulman was tortured. No purely 
Turkish village (with one exception) was attacked or 
burned. No Mussulman house was pillaged. No 
mosque was desecrated." 

The storm of indignation which followed the publi- 
cation of the reports of Mr. Schuyler and Mr. Baring 
the British commissioner, was so terrible that even a 
Disraeli cabinet did not dare to enter into another 
monstrous alliance with the Turks against the only 
champion of the Christians. But official neutrality 
did not prevent the Turks from recruiting many of- 
ficers in England ; in spite of it British guineas and 
firearms strengthened their powers of resistance against 
Russia. 

It is a terrible indictment that may be brought 
against England that the question of righteousness 
never seems to enter into the questions of her foreign 
"policy," but only the question of interest and that 
chiefly the interest which is reckoned in pounds, shill- 
ings and pence. 

From a letter dated September 4th, 1876, pub- 



178 THE BCTJiGAKIAN MASSACRE. 

lished in one of the English Blue Books, addressed 
to the Earl of Derby by Sir Henry Elliot, English Am- 
bassador at Constantinople, — the Sir Henry who would 
not support the Anclrassy Note because he feared that 
the provisions of it trenched upon the rights of the 
Ottoman Porte to manage its own affairs, — the following- 
quotation is taken, viz : — 

" An insurrection or civil war is everywhere accom- 
panied by cruelties and abominable excesses, this being- 
tenfold the case in oriental countries where people are 
divided into antagonistic creeds and races. * * * To 
the accusation of being a blind partisan of the Turks, 
I will only answer that my conduct here has never 
been guided by any sentimental affection for them, but 
by a firm determination to uphold the interests of 
Great Britain to the utmost of my power, and that 
those interests are deeply engaged in preventing the 
disruption of the Turkish Empire, is a conviction which 
I share in common with the most eminent statesmen 
who have directed our foreign policy. (This is the ke}' 
to every position assumed by British diplomacy at the 
Porte. Never a question of righteousness.) 

"We may, and must feel indignant at the needless 
and monstrous severity with which the Bulgarian in- 
surrection was put down, but the necessity which ex- 
ists for England to prevent changes from occurring 
here which would be most detrimental to ourselves, 
is not affected by the question whether it was ten 
thousand or twenty thousand persons who perished in 
the suppression. 

" We have been upholding what we know to be a 
semi-civilized nation, liable under certain circumstances 
to be carried into fearful excesses : but the fact of this 



THE BULGARIAN MASSACRE. 179 

having now been brought home to us all, cannot be a 
sufficient reason for abandoning a policy which is the 
only one that can be followed with due regard to our 
interests." 

It is enough to take one's breath away to read such 
words as these. They are clear enough. They declare 
what is the settled policy of the English government. 
Towards Turkey ? Not alone, but towards the world. 
Her interests are purely commercial. — Interests pay- 
able in gold : always and everywhere. What are her 
interests in Venezuela ? In the Bering Sea fisheries ? 
In the Transvaal ? In India and in China ? 

The integrity of the Turkish Empire must be main- 
tained. All else is mere diplomatic froth, waste breath 
and ink in the torrents of her speeches and her cor- 
respondence with the Porte ; and the Turk knows it, 
and Russia knows it and the world knows it. England 
is pilloried to-day for her selfishness, if not for her un- 
righteousness, in all her dealings with the rest of the 
earth. It is her government, not her people that the 
world arraigns. 

Mr. Freeman is scathing and unsparing in his de- 
nunciation of the government's position ; but that he 
was not more severe than just the issue plainly de- 
clared, and we tarry on this situation a moment longer 
because of its special bearing upon the situation as re- 
gards the massacres in Armenia. 

War had been declared by Servia and Montenegro 
against Turkey on the 2d of July, 1876, which had 
thus far resulted in victory for Montenegro and defeat 
for Servia. This situation still further increased the 
anxieties of the great powers. Not that they cared for 
Turkey only because they could not agree on how it 



180 THE BULGARIAN MASSACRE. 

should be carved up. They would all like a generous 
slice if each could have the portion that he liked best. 

When it became evident that there was hope of any- 
good resulting from notes and memorandums, the 
British Government suggested a conference of the 
powers which had been parties to the Treaty of Paris 
to meet at Constantinople in December 1876 : and in 
order to open the way for this conference, proposed an 
armistice of six weeks between Turkey and Servia. 

The Turkish government proposed six months : the 
Russians demanded an immediate armistice of from 
four to six weeks and threatened to break off diplo- 
matic relations at once if it was not granted. The 
Turkish government complied with the demand. 

In an interview with the British Minister, November 
2d, 1876, the Emperor Alexander pledged his sacred 
word of honor in the most earnest and solemn manner 
that he had no intention of acquiring Constantinople, 
and that if necessity compelled him to occupy a portion 
of Bulgaria it would only be provisionally and until 
the peace and safety of the Christian population could 
be secured. 

A few days later — November 10th, the Emperor made 
a speech at Moscow in which he said : " I have striven 
and shall still strive to obtain a real improvement of 
the position of the Christians in the East by peaceful 
means. But should I see that we cannot obtain such 
guarantees as are necessary for carrying out what we 
have a right to demand of the Porte I am firmly deter- 
mined to act independently; and I am convinced, 
that in this case the whole of Russia will respond to my 
summons should I consider it necessary and should the 
honor of Russia require it." 



THE BULGARIAN MASSACRE. 183 

The preliminary conference at Constantinople was 
opened on the 11th of December, and was participated 
in by representatives from Great Britain, France, Rus- 
sia, Austria-Hungary, Germany and Italy. 

The conference was foredoomed to end in failure, for 
by the treaty of Paris the Powers had no right to inter- 
fere, and they were all too righteous to sin against that 
treaty, though Bulgaria should be utterly wasted with 
fire and sword. 

The Marquis of Salisbury, now Prime Minister, was 
the chief representative of Great Britain, and in a speech 
before the House of Lords thus defined the purposes of 
the conference and its failure. After speaking of pre- 
vious treaties and the changes that had taken place 
both in Turkey and Great Britain which prevented the 
latter from maintaining exactly the same attitude to- 
wards Turkey which she did in 1856, he went on to 
say : " If the alliance was broken up, if our exertions 
for the maintenance of the Ottoman Empire were to 
cease * * * assuredly it was our duty to exhaust 
appeal, remonstrance and exhortation before deserting a 
cause we had hitherto maintained. * * * We went 
to stop a great and menacing danger, namely the pros- 
pect of a war between Russia and the Porte. It was 
in pointing out that evil that our moral influence on 
the Porte rested. We said to Turkey, " Unless you do 
this or that, this terrible danger which may well involve 
the loss of your Empire is ready to fall upon you. We 
hope that our influence and advice may be able to 
avert it: indeed we come here for that purpose, but we 
warn you that we shall accept no responsibility for the 
future, if you treat our advice with disdain. * * * 
It seems to me, as it must to everybody else, that the re- 
11 



184 THE BULGARIAN MASSACRE. 

fusal of the Turk is a mystery : for the infatuation of 
that cause seems to be so tremendous." 

The refusal of the Turk is no mystery to-day. There 
was no infatuation about it. The Porte knew that his 
speech meant no harm to Turkey : that he had come to 
avert the loss of the Empire. He knew very well that 
whatever the issue of the war might be on the battle- 
field, England would never let Russia profit by her vic- 
tories. Hence the Porte in sublime contempt snapped 
its fingers in the face of the Conference and politely 
bowed it out of existence. The issue proved that the 
Turks knew exactly the man and the nation they were 
dealing with. Yet the English people thought the 
Government really meant to do something to help the 
cause of the persecuted Bulgarians : just as they thought 
for awhile that Salisbury as Prime Minister meant, 
really intended to do something in the cause of Ar- 
menia. 

England has not changed in her traditional policy 
towards the Turk. She has not deserted the cause she 
has maintained for now some sixty years, and she never 
will desert it until she and Russia can agree about the 
division of the spoils : then her love for the Turk will 
vanish as a mist before the rising sun of her own increas- 
ing power and splendor. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE EUSSO-TURKISH "WAR. 

We turn back a single leaf of history in beginning 
this chapter on the Russo-Turkisli War, — and stand at 
the opening of the year 1876. As the nations of Eu- 
rope faced the questions of that hour, there was not 
one of them that desired to begin a war of which no 
statesman could foresee the issue. 

Perhaps the traditional desire of Russia to possess 
the gates of the two continents and fly her flag over 
Constantinople, delivered from the Crescent of Islam, 
was growing apace, and her indignation at the treat- 
ment of the Greek Christians was rising to fever heat, 
but she did not desire war. Turkey did not desire 
war, the insurrection in Bosnia and Herzegovina was 
giving her serious trouble. England did not desire 
war, though her people were divided, part favoring 
Russia as a Christian nation, as against an infidel, but 
a greater part thinking of Turkish bonds which were 
held in London that would be worthless if Turkey 
should be dismembered ; France did not want a war 
which would imperil her interests in the Suez Canal 
and in Syria, and because if she sided with Turkey, 
Germany might side with the Czar. And as neither 
Germany nor Italy desired war it would seem as if it 
might be easy to prevent its occurrence. 

Hence the diplomats put their heads together, and 
Count Julius Andrassy, the Premier of Austria, one of 

(185) 



186 THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR. 

the ablest of the Continental statesmen undertook on 
the 25th of January, 1876, to draw up a note to the 
Ottoman Porte demanding certain reforms from Tur- 
key, and promising to sustain her if she would insti- 
tute these reforms promptly. 

The following are some of the measures proposed for 
the pacification of discontented Servia, Roumania and 
Montenegro, viz : 

1. Religious liberty, full and entire. 

2. Abolition of the farming of taxes. 

3. A law to guarantee that the direct taxation of 
Bosnia and Herzegovina should be employed for the 
immediate interests of the province. 

4. A special commission, composed of an equal num- 
ber of Mussulmans and Christians to superintend the 
execution of the reforms proclaimed and proposed. 

5. The amelioration of the condition of the rural 
populations. 

The Grand Vizier, Midhat Pasha, replied, that he 
was preparing a Constitution which would, he believed, 
embody these and other measures of reform. 

The Powers trusted his integrity and disposition to 
promote these reforms; but even though the entire 
Imperial ministry saw clearly the evils out of which 
the insurrections had grown, it were in the face of 
centuries of deceit and the cruelty and the intolerance 
of Islam, to believe that the Porte would of its own 
volition enforce these reforms against a hostile Mussul- 
man sentiment. 

The Powers waited for months until on May 1st, 
1876, without having received the honest approval of 
the Sultan, the outline of the Constitution of Midhat 
Pasha was published. 



THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR. 187 

Now note this fact — that on the 14th of May, when 
the representatives of Russia, Austria-Hungary, Ger- 
many and Great Britain, met at Berlin, desirous of sus- 
taining the good intentions of the Grand Vizier and 
agreed upon a paper known as the u Berlin Memoran- 
dum," which provided for a guaranty by the great 
powers of the several reforms which had been already 
proclaimed, when all the others had signed it, knowing 
that only by such a broad guaranty could the reforms 
ever be enforced, Great Britain refused to sign it on 
the ground " that it must obviously and inevitably lead 
to the military occupation of Turkey." 

The Memorandum fell to the ground by the action of 
England, who was not willing to stand with the other 
powers and compel the enforcement of the reforms de- 
manded. England was alone responsible for that failure. 

But worse than that, with all the enormities of the 
Bulgarian outrages which took place during the ses- 
sions of the great powers, just coming to the ears of 
the horrified nations, England sent her fleet into 
Besika Bay, on the 26th of May, as if to say to the 
other powers, " Hands off, let Turkey alone, no reforms 
are needed." 

Two or three weeks after this demonstration, which 
had had its effect in assuring Turkey that England 
would stand by her, the fleet withdrew to its former 
harbor. 

Those were stormy days at Constantinople. The 
Grand Vizier, Mehemet Ruchdi, and Midhat Pasha 
requested tlie Sultan Abdul Aziz to give up some of 
his treasure to save the nation from ruin. He refused 
and was deposed May 29th. The next day his nephew 
was proclaimed as Murad V., joyfully accepted by the 



188 THE RUSSO-TURKLSH WAR. 

people and recognized by the Western powers. But he 
also was deposed on August 31st and his brother pro- 
claimed. When invested on the 7th of September, 
with the Sword of Othman, Abdul Hamid II., in his 
inaugural address, said: "The great object to be 
aimed at, is to adopt measures for placing the laws and 
regulations of the country upon a basis which shall in- 
spire confidence in their execution. For this purpose 
it is indispensable to proceed to the establishment of a 
general Council or National Assembly, whose acts will 
inspire confidence in the nation, and will be in harmony 
with the customs, aptitudes and capabilities of the 
populations of the Empire. The mission and duty of 
this Council will be, to guarantee without exception, 
the faithful execution of the existing laws, or of those 
which shall be promulgated in conformity with the 
provisions of the " Sheri " (The decrees alread}^ pub- 
lished), in connection with the real and legitimate 
wants of the country and its inhabitants, as also to con- 
trol the equilibrium of the revenue and expenditures of 
the Empire." 

In accordance with this inaugural promise the 
Council of Ministers prepared a Constitution, not quite 
so liberal as the one Midhat Pasha had previously pre- 
sented, and proclaimed it on December 23d, 1876. 

Midhat Pasha had been made Grand Vizier on the 
19th. On the 23d the opening of a Conference of six 
great Powers took place in Constantinople to consider 
measures that would ensure peace at the close of the 
Armistice then existing between Turkey and Servia and 
Montenegro which had been extended to February, 
1877. They asked for local self-government for the 
Turkish provinces in Europe — equal treatment of Mo- 



THE RUSSO TURKISH WAR. 189 

hammedans and Christians, better adminstration for 
both, security for life and property and effectual 
guarantees against the repetition of outrages. On 
January 18th, 1877, the great National Council of 
Turkey rejected the propositions of the Conference, 
which therefore closed its sittings on the 20th, having 
accomplished nothing. 

Now just here please note this fact — that if Great 
Britain had signed the Berlin memorandum which was 
to guarantee the execution of the reforms promised — 
the Ambassadors might have demanded the enforce- 
ment of such reforms, and backed their demand by the 
presence of a fleet before Constantinople. 

Great Britain thus was to blame for the feebleness 
of the advice which was tendered and of course rejected. 
If the Sultan had been sincere when he issued his 
inaugural, if he really meant to give equal rights to his 
Christian subjects he would have welcomed the presence 
of a combined fleet that would have protected himself 
from the opposition of fanatical leaders of the old 
Turkish party. This was the crisis of 1876, — granting 
that there was an honest desire to reform the govern- 
ment of Turkey and the distinct refusal of Great 
Britian to sign the memorandum guaranteeing that 
said reforms promised should be executed, settles upon 
her government the responsibility of the failure of the 
promised reforms of the constitution proposed, and also 
of the war that followed. 

Notice further, the fanatical leading Turks were 
bound not to suffer the interference of any foreign 
power, and this bitterness of fanaticism apparently 
compelled the Sultan to dismiss and send into exile 
(February 5th) Midhat Pasha, the wisest minister in 



190 THE KUSSO-TUUKISH WAR. 

the Government, and drove the Porte itself on to the 
war which followed. 

After the failure of the Conference at Constanti- 
nople, Prince Gortschakoff issued a circular in which 
after reciting what had taken place he said, " It is 
necessary for us to know what the cabinets with which 
we have hitherto acted in common, propose to do with a 
view of meeting this refusal and insuring the execution 
of their wishes." 

Now remember the armistice was only extended to 
February 1st, 1877. Turkey refused to give any 
guarantee to fulfil the reforms promised, the atrocities 
of Bulgaria were still unpunished — the people were still 
at the mercy of the fanatical and cruel Turks. 

Before any response had been made to this request 
for information from the other Cabinets, a treaty of 
peace with Servia had been signed March 1st, and the 
First Parliament was convened at Constantinople 
March 19th. 

The Russian Government pressed for an answer, and 
fearing it might be embarassed prepared a protocol 
which was signed by the representatives of the six 
powers at London on the 31st of March, 1877. After 
taking cognizance of the peace which had recently been 
concluded between Turkey and Servia, and of the good 
intentions of the Porte as had been shown in its declara- 
tions made from time to time during the past year, the 
protocol invited the Porte to place its army on a peace 
footing and then declared that " the Powers propose to 
watch carefully by means of their representatives at 
Constantinople and their local agents, the manner in 
which the promises of the Ottoman Government are 
carried into effect. 



THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR. 191 

"If their hopes should once more be disappointed, 
and if the condition of the Christian subjects of the 
Sultan should not be improved in such a manner as to 
prevent the returns of the complications which 
periodically disturb the peace of the East, they think it 
right to declare that such a state of affairs would be in- 
compatible with their interests and those of Europe in 
general. In such case they reserve to themselves to 
consider in common as to the means which they may 
deem best fitted to secure the well-being of the 
Christian populations and the interests of the general 
peace." 

t These are very good words, but unless the Powers 
meant to back them up with men and guns and war 
ships, they were only waste breath and paper. 

On affixing his signature the Russian Ambassador 
filed the following declaration : — 

" If peace with Montenegro is concluded and the 
Porte accepts the advice of Europe, and shows itself 
ready to replace its forces on a peace footing— seriously 
to undertake the reforms mentioned in the protocol, let 
it send to St. Petersburg a special envoy to treat of 
disarmament to which His Majesty, the Emperor, 
would also on his part consent. If massacres similar to 
those which have stained Bulgaria with blood take 
place, this would necessarily put a stop to the measures 
of demobilization." 

If Turkey had honestly desired to enforce the re- 
forms promised, and deal justly by her Christian sub- 
jects, and avoid the dangers of war, there should have 
been no hesitation in giving its assent to this protocol. 

But the Sublime Porte knew very well that Great 
Britain would never take up arms against her, as she 



192 THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR. 

had distinctly refused to sign a memorandum that might 
involve the pressure of force. The Porte knew it could 
rely upon the diplomatic resources of England in the 
final issue of affairs, hence rejected the protocol with 
audacity and insolence. In substance the rejection of 
these last offers of peace stated that: — First, the Sub- 
lime Porte would spare no effort to arrive at an under- 
standing with the Prince of Montenegro. Second, that 
the Imperial government was prepared to adopt all the 
promised reforms. Third, that Turkey was ready to 
place its armies on a peace footing as soon as it saw the 
Russian government take measures to the same end. 
Fourth, with regard to the disturbances which might 
break out and stop the demobilization of the Russian 
army, the Turkish government repelled the injurious 
terms in which the idea had been expressed, and stated 
its belief that Europe was convinced that the recent 
disturbances were due to foreign instigation, (i. e. Rus- 
sia's) and after other reasons given, it declared that 
Turkey can not allow foreign agents or representatives 
charged to protect the interests of their compatriots to 
have any mission of official supervision. (Precisely its 
position to-day.) 

The Imperial government in fact is not aware how it 
can have deserved so ill of justice and civilization, as to 
see itself placed in a humiliating position without ex- 
ample in the world. (This after all the horrors of Bul- 
garia — which were known to the world long before this.) 

The treaty of Paris gave an explicit sanction to the 
principle of non-intervention. * * * And if Turkey 
appeals to the stipulations of the treaty * * it is for 
the purpose of calling attention to the grave reasons 
which, in the interest of the general peace of Europe, 



THE BUSS0-TURK1SH WAR. 193 

induced the powers, twenty years ago, to place the 
recognition of the inviolability of this Empire's right to 
sovereignty, under the guaranty of its collective promise. 

When the Turkish ambassador in London called upon 
Earl Derby, on the 12th of April, to deliver the above 
circular, the British Minister of Foreign Affairs ex- 
pressed his deep regrets at the view the Porte had taken, 
and said he could not see what further steps England 
could take to avert the war which appeared to be in- 
evitable. 

On the 24th of April, the Czar, who was at Kische - 
neff, with his army, issued his manifesto in which he 
said : — 

" For two years we have made incessant efforts to in- 
duce the Porte to effect such reforms as would protect 
the Christians in Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Bulgaria 
from the arbitrary measures of the local authorities. 
The accomplishment of these reforms was absolutely 
stipulated by anterior engagements contracted by the 
Porte to the whole of Europe. 

" Our efforts supported by diplomatic representations 
made in common by the other governments have not, 
however, attained their object. The Porte has re- 
mained unshaken in its formal refusal of any effective 
guaranty for the security of its Christian subjects, and 
has rejected the conclusions of the Constantinople Con- 
ference. Wishing to essay every possible means of con- 
ciliation in order to persuade the Porte, we proposed to 
the other Cabinets to draw up a special protocol, com- 
prising the most essential conditions of the Constanti- 
nople Conference, and to invite the Turkish govern- 
ment to adhere to this international act, which states 
the extreme limits of our peaceful demands. But our 



194 THK UUSSO-TURKISH WAR. 

expectation was not fulfilled. The Porte did not defer 
to this unanimous wish of Christian Europe and did not 
adhere to the conclusions of the protocol. Having ex- 
hausted pacific efforts we are compelled by the haughty 
obstinacy of the Porte to proceed to more decisive acts, 
feeling that equity and our own dignity enjoin it. By 
her refusal, Turkey places us under the necessity of 
having recourse to arms. 

"Profoundly convinced of the justice of our cause 
and humbly committing ourselves to the grace and help 
of the Most High, we make known to our faithful sub- 
jects that the moment foreseen when we pronounced 
words to which all Russia responded with complete 
unanimity, has now arrived. We expressed the inten- 
tion to act independently when we deemed it necessary, 
and when Russia's honor should demand it. And now, 
invoking the blessing of God upon our valiant armies, 
we give them the order to cross the Turkish frontier." 

Never was the sword drawn in more dignified and 
solemn manner ; never in a more holy war for the de- 
liverance of persecuted and outraged humanity. Alex- 
ander drew his sword in the cause of Bulgaria, knowing 
that single-handed and alone he must face the armies 
of Turkey, the indifference of Continental Europe ; 
knowing that he must face the bitter opposition and 
jealousy of England, and not knowing but he might 
have to meet her armies and fleets as well. This latter 
possibility was averted, as we know, by the vehement 
opposition of Gladstone, John Bright, and other states- 
men ; the people voiced their opinions in four hundred 
public meetings, and the Disraeli Cabinet was prevented 
from declaring war in behalf of injured and self-right- 
eous Turkey. 



THE RUSSO-TUEKISH WAR. 195 

It is very well known that there are many who deny that 
Russia was moved by any high sense of honor, or driven 
by righteous and outraged Christian sentiment to draw 
the sword for the deliverance of Bulgaria and the punish- 
ment of the unspeakable Turk. They affirm "her to be 
governed entirely by self-interest, and that under the 
garb of zeal for her distressed co-religionists she seeks 
to conceal her purposes of self-aggrandizement. Russia 
has been the persistent and bitter foe of Turkey for 
three hundred years, and Turkey of Russia. 

Only once in all that time (1833) did Russia stretch 
out her hand to aid the Turk, and for reward she re- 
ceived the free navigation of the Dardanelles and the 
Bosphorus for a series of years. She has fought the 
Turk single-handed and alone : she has fought him 
when he has had Poland and the Tartars for his allies : 
when Venice and Austria and Hungary fought under 
his banners: when Italy and France were his allies : 
when England, France and Sardinia united to help him 
in the Crimea. 

Whatever her motives Russia has always been true 
to herself, and consistent in her hatred of the Turk. It 
may be that she has dreams of an empire ruled from 
Constantinople as a Winter Capital; but whatever her 
dreams or purposes, no nation has less claim to rule 
over the ancient Byzantine Empire than the alien race 
of the Ottoman Turks — fanatical followers of the 
prophet. 

The Russo-Turkish war, while but a brief campaign, 
was from its beginning to the treaty of San Stefano a 
war for religious life and freedom and singularly free 
from death, or insult to civilian or woman, while 
abounding in thrilling and dramatic incident. 



196 THE RTJSSO TURKISH WAR. 

On the Russian side the preparations for war had 
been carried on with much secrecy, headquarters being 
at Kischeneff in Bessarabia. The greater part of the 
army had been distributed throughout the provinces in 
comfortable winter quarters, and were in excellent 
health and spirits. Early in April the soldiers began 
swarming towards Kischeneff for the Grand Review 
and the expected declaration of war. The city had put 
on its holiday attire, flags and streamers were flying 
from the houses, and there was the greatest excitement 
among the people and the soldiers as they waited the 
arrival of the Emperor. The Review was to be no 
dress parade, but the serious prelude to war. It was 
all the more impressive therefore, as early on the 
morning of April 24th, 1877, the army corps began to 
gather on the broad plains and sloping hillsides above 
the town. The troops were already under arms by 
nine o'clock, standing in lone lines and solid masses, 
silent and almost motionless as for an hour and a half, 
they waited the arrival of the Emperor. The crowd, 
too, of onlookers were serious, and spoke in hushed 
voices, for these splendid troops were soon to be hurled 
against the fortification of Plevna only to be shattered, 
broken, decimated. Only when the Emperor appeared 
mounted, accompanied by his brother the Grand Duke 
Nicholas and an immense staff of a hundred officers and 
rode slowly along the lines, was the silence broken by 
the sound of music and the cheering of the soldiers. 

The review was over in an hour. The music ceased, 
silence reigned, the soldiers stood uncovered and the 
crowd also removed their caps. The voice of only one 
man was heard, that of the Bishop of Kischeneff saying 
a grand military Mass. For more than half an hour the 



THE RUSSO TURKISH WAR. 197 

soldiers, composed expectant, reverently stood and lis- 
tened. When the Mass was finished a low murmur ran 
through the crowd. Then a dead silence, and again the 
strong voice of the Bishop was heard not now engaged 
in prayer but in reading the Manifesto. In the midst 
of it sobs were heard and as men looked they saw the 
Emperor weeping like a child. It had been the pride 
and glory of the reign of Alexander that his reign had 
been of peace. He hoped to finish it without war, and 
now the fatal step had been taken, and who could tell 
its issue. This was not the spirit of a man eager, de- 
termined on conquest, lusting for martial fame and 
glory. There was not a dry eye within sound of the 
Bishop's voice, but when he closed with the impressive 
words, "And now, invoking the blessing of God upon 
our valiant armies we give them the order to cross the 
Turkish frontier," a wild and universal shout went up 
— a shout of exultation, triumph, relief, which ran 
through all the army over hill and plain till the whole 
air resounded with the glad acclaim. Some corps 
started at once for the frontier and the rest began 
rapidly preparing for the march— and by the 10th of 
May the Russian army, over two hundred thousand 
men, was posted along the banks of the Danube facing 
the forts, the fleets and the armies of the Porte which 
numbered one hundred and fifty thousand effective 
soldiers. 

Not until June 27th did the main body of the Russians 
succeed in crossing the Danube, but it was most skill- 
fully clone and the march began for Constantinople. 
Already the hero of the war had been revealed in the 
person of General Skobeleff — the Custer of the Russian 
army and the youngest general in the army, with a 



198 THE RUSSO-TUEKISH "WAR. 

strange and brilliant career which was to be most glori- 
ously eclipsed by the successes of this campaign. 

"He was a tall, handsome man with a lithe, slender, 
active figure, clear, blue eyes, a large prominent, but 
straight well-shaped nose, the kind of a nose it said Napo- 
leon used to look for among his officers when he wished 
to find a general." He was highly educated, speaking 
five languages fluently, and always had time even in 
his hardest campaigns for new books and reviews. He 
was every inch a soldier, and his great strength laj^ in 
the power and influence he had over his men. He was 
never weary of seeing that his men were well fed, 
warmly clothed and comfortable. He was always in- 
telligible in his orders. He was the comrade of his 
men as well as their officer. When the passage of the 
Danube was made finally on the pontoon bridge, Skobe- 
leff shouldered a musket like a private soldier and 
marched over with his men. Every officer under him 
was devoted to him. He treated them all as friends, 
but then every one of them was expected when occasion 
came to lay down his life as an example to his men. 
" Fear," he said, " must cease when a man reaches the 
grade of captain." 

After the passage of the Danube, he was given the 
command of a division — was always at the front, in the 
thickest of every fight. He was a hero at Plevna, that 
stronghold commanding the pass through the Balkans, 
where Osman Pasha held the Russians at bay from July 
until December 11th. Three times the Russians had 
attacked it and -been repulsed ; twice in July and the 
third time in September. The great infantry assault 
was made on the 11th day of September, the fifth day 
of the bombardment. 



THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR. 201 

On this last occasion Skobeleff's duty was to take a 
redoubt on a certain Green Hill, which he regarded as 
the key to the Turkish position. He always rode a 
white horse and wore a white coat that he might be 
more conspicuous to his own men during a battle. 
With his usual address to his soldiers he despatched 
them to the redoubt. He knew well that he was send- 
ing many of them to their death. They knew it too, 
but advanced unflinchingly in the face of a fearful fire 
from cannon and from infantry. One company wavered 
and broke. Instantly Skobeleff was among them on 
his white charger. "Follow me," he cried, "I will 
show you how to thrash the Turks. Close up there ! 
Follow me my men. I will lead you myself. He who 
deserts me should be ashamed of himself ! Now then, 
drummers — look alive." 

Meantime the Turks were seen everywhere torturing 
the wounded before despatching them. This roused 
the spirit of the Russians and they pushed on with 
fury. With fearful loss they captured the redoubt, 
and planted two Russian flags on it. Then Skobeleff, 
who had had two horses shot under him, started back for 
reinforcements. 

In vain he pleaded for men. In vain he pleaded that 
the redoubt was the key of the position. He burst into 
tears. He visited the redoubt three or four times 
during the day to encourage them. Plevna would soon 
be taken. Victoiy would crown their efforts. For the 
honor and the glory of the Russian arms ; — and they 
always replied with the same cheery shouts while their 
numbers were dwindling by hundreds. But the battle 
was against the Russians. One more effort must be 
made. 

12 



202 THE BUSSO-TURKISH WAR. 

" Major Gortaloff, you will remain here in charge of 
the redoubt," he said. " Can I depend on you? You 
must hold this at any price." "I will remain or die, 
Your Excellency." " Possibly I shall be unable to send 
you any reinforcements. Give me your word that you 
will not leave the redoubt." " My honor is pledged. 
I will not leave this place alive." The Major raised his 
hand as if taking an oath. Skobeleff embraced him. 
" God help you ! Remember my men, there may be no 
reinforcements. Count only on yourselves. Farewell, 
heroes." But as he took his last look at them — 
the finest troops of his division, he sighed. " Con- 
secrated to death," he said and thundered down the 
hill. 

Only one thing remained, to draw off his men and 
save as many of them as possible. 

A colonel of one regiment of Cossack infantry, how- 
ever, without orders, put his men at Skobeleff's dis- 
posal and once more he started for the redoubt. 

The Turks were swarming over the ramparts, mount- 
ing its walls on dead bodies. The garrison defending 
themselves by bayonets began to despair. At last 
through the fog and smoke they saw their comrades 
coming. But Skobeleff had only one battalion; not 
enough to drive out the Turks. 

" I think he wants to cover our retreat," said the 
Major, He gathered his men about him. " Comrades 
go. Open your way with your bayonets. This place 
can no longer be held. God bless you, my children. 
Forward." And bowing his head he reverently made 
the sign of the cross over his men. " And j^ou, 
father?" they exclaimed. "I stay with our dead. 
Tell the general I have kept my word. Good by, 



THE RUSSOTURKISH WAR. 203 

children." They watched him as they turned their 
heads in their retreat. They saw him standing on the 
ramparts waving to them. Then the Turks rushed in. 
They saw the struggle. They saw his body uplifted 
upon Turkish bayonets. 

" It was just after this," said a correspondent, "that 
I met General Skobeleff the first time that day. He 
was in a fearful state of excitement and fury. His 
uniform was covered with mud and filth, his sword 
broken ; his cross of St. George twisted round on his 
shoulder ; his face black with powder and smoke ; his 
eyes haggard and bloodshot, and his voice quite gone. 
I never before saw such a picture of battle as he pre- 
sented. I saw him again in his tent at night. He was 
quite calm and collected. He said, 'I have done my 
best. I could do no more. My detachment is half de- 
stroyed ; my regiments do not exist ; I have no officers 
left ; they sent me no reinforcements, and I have lost 
three guns.' ' Why did they refuse you reinforcements ? ' 
I asked. 'Who was to blame?' 'I blame nobody,' 
he replied. ' It is the will of God.' " 

The Russians fell back from Plevna for a little 
breathing spell, having lost in this third assault more 
than twenty thousand men. 

At Bucharest General Skobeleff met General Tod- 
leben, the great engineer who had planned and super- 
intended twenty-one years before the defence of Sebas- 
topol. It had been decided to plan works by which 
Plevna should be taken, not by assault but by star- 
vation. 

By the middle of October, 1877, Skobeleff was back 
at the seat of war with his division of about forty 
thousand men. He had no longer with him the " lions," 



204 THE RUSSO -TURKISH WAR. 

the " eagles," the " heroes " of the third assault, but 
largely new recruits whom he must train. 

Two months of the siege sufficed to starve out the 
garrison, and Osman Pasha surrendered unconditionally 
on December 11th, and thirty-two thousand men laid 
down their arms and the gates were open towards Con- 
stantinople. As soon as Plevna fell Skobeleff was ap- 
pointed its military governor. The Roumanians in the 
Russian army had already begun the plunder of the 
city. When Skobeleff remonstrated, their officers re- 
plied : " We are the victors, and the victors have a 
right to the spoils." " In the first place," answered the 
general, " we were never at war with the peaceable in- 
habitants of this place, and consequently can not have 
conquered them. But, secondly, please acquaint your 
men that I shall have victors of this kind shot. Every 
man caught marauding shall be shot like a dog. Please 
bear this in mind. There is another thing. You must 
not insult women. Such conduct is very humiliating. 
Let me tell you that every such complaint will be in- 
vestigated and every case of outrage punished." 

Compare this order with the horrible atrocities con- 
tinually committed upon the Bulgarians during this 
campaign by Bashi-Bazouks and the thirty thousand 
Circassian horsemen, who were allowed to follow their 
own fashions, in which they excel even the Apache 
tribes once the terror of the Southwest. Before them 
went anguish and horror ; after them death, ruin and 
despair. 

We have no time to follow the war as carried on in Ar- 
menia, but on. November 17-18, the city and fortress of 
Kars was carried by assault, and the Russian officers 
remembering how the fanatical Turks had tortured 



THE RTJSSO-TURKISH WAB. 205 

and killed the wounded soldiers that had fallen into 
their cruel hands, expressed the fear lest their excited 
soldiers might put aside feelings of humanity and in- 
flict summary vengeance. 

But contrary to all expectations, Cossack and Russian 
put aside all thought of personal revenge ; and not a 
single civilian was killed or insulted, and not a woman 
had to complain of insult or outrage. These facts 
are stated for the sake of those who may have thought 
that there is little to choose between the semi-bar- 
barous hordes of Russia (as they call them) and the 
armies of Turks, Kurds and Circassians. 

Another fact regarding the religious sentiment of 
the Russian peasant transformed into a soldier. A 
Frenchman who was at Plevna with the officers of the 
Commander-in-chief's staff thus writes of Skobeleff: 
" He is a magnificent looking soldier, almost as tall as 
the Emperor. * * On the battlefield he is brave as a 
lion. * * * When ordering a retreat, he sheathes his 
sword, sends his white charger to the front and remains 
on foot, the last man in the rear, saying; 'They may 
kill me if they like, but they shall not harm my horse 
unless he is advancing against the enemy. He has 
never quitted a battlefield without carrying off his 
wounded (unless in such retreat as from the third as- 
sault on Plevna), nor has he ever after a battle gone to 
rest without making an address to his men, and writing 
his own report to the commander-in-chief. He is 
adored by his soldiers. * * He is highly educated 
and a sincerely religious man. ' No man can feel com- 
fortable in facing death ' he has been heard to say ' who 
does not believe in God and have hope of a life to 
come.' Each evening in the camp he stood bareheaded 



206 THE EUSSO-TUJRKISH WAR. 

taking part in the evening service which was chanted 
by fifty or sixty of his soldiers. * If the people of 
Paris who shed tears over the Miserere in Trovatore, 
could hear these simple soldiers in the presence of 
death addressing prayers and praises to the Almighty 
Father with their whole hearts, they would find it far 
more moving. Skobeleff is as distinguished for his mod- 
esty as his bravery. ' My children,' he says to his sol- 
diers, ' I wear these crosses, but it is you who have won 
them for me.' " 

Attention is called to these things that you can com- 
pare for yourselves the morale of the Russian army 
with its reverence for woman and for God, with the 
grossness and corruption and wickedness that prevails in 
the mixed multitudes that form the soldiers of Islam. 

Who is not touched by the deep sincerity of that 
word in his first address to his army, " while you are 
fighting I shall pray for you." 

So deep was his interest in the war that he could not 
content himself in St. Petersburg but felt that his place 
was on the Danube. When he reached the seat of war 
he assumed no command, but he endeavored to inform 
himself about everything. The failures before Plevna 
greatly troubled him. " If we lose I will never return 
to Russia, I will die here with my brave soldiers. 
Hence it was with more than usual emotion that the 
Emperor reviewed the troops, seventy thousand men, 
at Plevna a few days after its fall. 

The troops were drawn up in two lines of quarter 
columns at intervals of ten paces between regiments. 
The second line was about fifty paces in rear of the 
first. He embraced the Generals, greeted the officers 
and then accompanied by the Grand Duke and Prince 



THE EUSSO-TURKISH WAR. 207 

Charles, attended by a brilliant staff, he passed down 
the front line and back by the second. His reception 
was most enthusiastic, every regiment cheering the mo- 
ment it caught sight of the white flag with the orna- 
mental cross that denoted the Emperor's presence ; and 
nothing could be more impressive than the enormous 
volume of sound produced by the triumphant cheers of 
seventy thousand men. 

In a few days Skobeleff's division was to cross the 
Balkans by a pass leading to Senova while the main 
army was to take the Shipka Pass. One order he gave 
caused much amusement among his brother officers. 
Each man of his division was ordered to carry a log of 
wood with him. " What will he think of next ? " said 
some one. "If Skobeleff has ordered, " said the Grand 
Duke Nicholas, " he has some good reason for it." 

He had a good reason. There was no wood on the 
summit of the Balkans. . He wanted his men to have 
three hot meals a day. And in consequence of his pre- 
cautions not one man of his division arrived disabled or 
frozen on the other side ; not one had straggled, and the 
only two who were lost had slipped and fallen over a 
precipice. The soldiers who crossed the Shipka Pass 
suffered frightfully. The passage to Senova was an 
awful journey. The men had to break their way 
through great snowdrifts. They had to drag their 
cannon on sledges by hand, but on the third day they 
descended into the Valley of Roses in splendid form. 

In the battles that raged during the next few days 
Skobeleff was uniformly successful, and the regiments 
coming down the Shipka Pass went right into the thick 
of the fight. At last the Turks put out two white 
flags. The Pashas surrendered themselves and their 



208 THE 11USSO-TURKISH WAR. 

vvliole army — thirty-five thousand men and one hun- 
dred and thirteen guns were given up. 

" The scoundrels," muttered Gen. Skobeleff "to give 
up with such a force and with such a position." "No 
wonder," cried the Turks, " that we were beaten ; for 
the Russians were commanded by Akh Pasha and it is 
impossible to overcome him. The first order given 
was, " Let the Turks ' property be sacred to us. Let not 
a crumb of theirs be lost. Warn the men, I will shoot 
them for stealing." 

"I shall never forget," said Mr. Kinnard Rose, "a 
solemn service for the repose of the souls of the dead 
that was held on that battlefield c-f Sen ova by the 
General and a score of companions. Skobeleff's chap- 
lain chanted the Mass with a simple dragoon for clerk. 
Every head was uncovered. The partj r stood in re- 
spectful groups around a monumental column with its 
cross, the General to the right of the priest. As the 
service progressed, the General wept like a child, and 
among the small but deeply moved congregation there 
were few dry eyes." 

And now the road lay open before him. The last 
army was beaten — Skobeleff's forced march made the 
Turkish Pashas stand aghast — thirty, even fifty miles a 
day, and soon he had occupied Adrianople, the second 
city of the Empire. He had entered it without a sick 
man — there was not a theft nor burglary — not a street 
row, as he rested there a few days. 

The heroes of the campaign in the Balkans were Gen- 
erals Gourko, Radetzky and Skobeleff. They carried 
out operations which for difficulty of execution, rapid- 
ity of movement and quickness of combination have 
hardly ever been equalled. In fifteen days they had 



THE EUSSO-TURKISH WAR. 209 

destroyed three Turkish armies, and swept the country 
from Shipka Pass to Adrianople and with one hundred 
and thirty-two thousand bayonets were ready to dictate 
peace to the Sublime Porte. 

General Gourko, who was Skobeleff' s senior, arrived 
in advance of his columns on January 26th, and took 
command of the city, while Skobeleff pushed on with his 
cavalry and in two weeks (February 5th) camped on the 
shores of the Sea of Marmora a short distance from 
Constantinople, having marched two hundred and sev- 
enty-five miles in twenty days, one hundred miles of it 
in four days. 

The history of the Russo-Turkish war has been 
written in terms of highest eulogy by impartial histo- 
rians and disinterested eyewitnesses. The condensed 
account given in these pages is accorded space to em- 
phasize the difference between warfare as conducted by 
one of the Great PoAvers of Europe and the barbarous 
methods of the " Unspeakable Turk." Previously to 
the occupancy of Adrianople by the Russian forces, 
representatives of the two nations most interested, met 
and seriously discussed the question of peace. 

The Turkish delegates refused to accept the Russian 
terms. They were informed that the Russians would 
march upon Constantinople unless they accepted. On 
the question of the autonomy for Bulgaria, the Russians 
were inflexible. This the delegates refused, and the 
troops continued to close in upon Constantinople. 

On January 31st an armistice was signed, and a neu- 
tral zone declared with Constantinople exposed to the 
Russian army. While going over the lines of delimita- 
tion one day, General Skobeleff and his whole staff 
gazed upon the city of Constantinople. He was furi- 



210 THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR. 

ous when he learned that the Russian army was not 
even to enter Constantinople, and he is said to have de- 
bated whether he would not on his own responsibility 
take the city without orders and break the meshes of 
diplomacy. 

" I would hold a congress in Constantinople — here ! " 
he said, " and would myself preside if I were Emperor, 
with three hundred thousand bayonets to back me — 
prepared for any eventuality. Then we could talk to 
them." 

" But suppose all Europe should oppose you ? " 

" There are moments when one must act — when it is 
criminal to be too cautious. We may have to wait 
centuries for so favorable an opportunity. You think 
the bulldogs would fight us ? Never. It should be 
our duty to defend this — our own city — with the last 
drop of our blood." 

When General Grant said that Russia's abstaining 
from entering Constantinople was the greatest mistake 
a nation ever committed, he was either not aware of the 
secret engagement made with Lord Loftus, the British 
Ambassador at St. Petersburg, or he considered with 
reason that England's sending her fleet into the Bos- 
phorus was such a violation of her engagements of neu- 
trality, as would justify Russia in not abiding by her 
promises. 

England, on February 8th, had ordered her fleet to 
Constantinople to protect British interests. News was 
received by Skobeleff that the fleet was under way. 
He instantly informed headquarters, and had orders for 
concentrating his troops where they could strike at a 
moment's notice. He quickly and gladly so disposed 
his army that in two hours he could occupy the Turk- 



THE RUSSO- TURKISH WAE. 211 

ish positions, and in thirty six hours could place two 
divisions on the high ground just behind Constanti- 
nople, the very ground from which the Turks in 1453 
had besieged and assaulted and captured this Queen of 
Eastern Christian Empire. For Russia had decided be- 
fore the armistice that the English fleet coming into 
the Bosphorus should be the signal for the march into 
the city. Then came the news that the Turks refused 
to allow the fleet to pass and that it was lying at the 
mouth of the Dardanelles and the danger of a general 
European war was passed for the time. 

But the approach of the fleet was a warning and the 
delay, and hesitation of the Ambassadors to sign the 
preliminaries of peace and the objections they made 
were irritating to the last degree, and the answer of 
Russia was the removal of headquarters to San Stefano, 
only twelve miles from Constantinople, and there the 
treaty of peace must be signed. 

There is little time to portray the many dramatic 
scenes connected with the signing of the treaty of San 
Stefano. March 3d was the anniversary of the Czar's 
accession to the throne. There was to be a grand re- 
view. At four o'clock the Grand Duke galloped to- 
wards the hill where the army was drawn up ; then up 
dashed a carriage from the village. General Ignatieff 
was in it and when he approached he rose and said : " I 
have the honor to congratulate Your Highness on the 
signature of peace." Then the Grand Duke to the 
army : " I have the honor to inform the army that with 
the help of God we have concluded a treaty of peace." 
A shout, swelling and triumphant, rose from the 
throats of twenty thousand men, some of them the 
most famous regiments of Russia's favored troops. 



212 THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR.> 

After the review the Grand Duke spoke briefly, " To 
an army which has accomplished what you have, my 
friends, nothing is impossible." Then all dismounted, 
uncovered and a solemn service was held, the soldiers 
all kneeling, even the wife of General Ignatieff was 
seen kneeling on a fur rug beside her carriage. The re- 
ligious ceremony over, the Grand Duke took his stand 
and the army began to file past with a swinging, rapid 
stride. The night was falling, darkness settling over 
all. Still the Grand Duke sat motionless on his horse, 
the troops still were passing ; the joyous shouts grew 
fainter and the measured tramp, tramp died out on the 
ear and the war of 1877-78 had entered into the his- 
tory of the struggle of humanity for religious life and 
freedom. The history of the treaties of San Stefano 
and of Berlin will be told in the chapter that records 
the greatest crime of the century against the life and 
freedom of a still suffering and outraged humanity un- 
der the curse of Islam. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID. 

It does not lie within the plan of this volume to re- 
view at any length the history of Turkey, or to sketch 
the lives of the Sultans who have reigned during the 
century ; it will answer, however, to make our work 
intelligible and clear, if the life of the reigning Sultan 
of Turkey, Abdul Hamid II. is presented briefly. 

He is the second son of Abdul Medjid, who was Sul- 
tan from 1839 to 1861. He was born September 5th, 
1842 ; and his mother having died when he was quite 
young, he was adopted by his father's second wife, her- 
self childless, who was very wealthy and made him her 
heir. His early life was quiet and uneventful; his 
boyhood was a continual scene of merry idleness. His 
education consisting mostly in amusements and tricks 
devised for his entertainment by the court slaves : and 
in an unusually early and complete initiation into the 
depravities of harem life. Indeed up to manhood all 
the learning he had acquired, amounted to but little 
more than the ability to read in the Arabic and Turk- 
ish tongues. His mother had died of consumption and 
his constitution was delicate. He had inherited a taste 
for drink, but his doctor who was a Greek, assured him 
it would be his destruction. " Then I will never touch 
wine or liquor again," said Abdul Hamid, and he kept 
his word. 

The turning point in his life came, when in 1867 his 

(213) 



214 THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID. 

Uncle Abdul Aziz, then Sultan, took his own son and 
his two nephews, Murad and Hamid, to the Paris Ex- 
position, England and Germany. He saw with a quick 
and appreciative eye. lie acquired a taste for political 
geography, and for European dress, customs and inter- 
ests. What he then learned was to modify very con- 
siderably the subsequent course of his life. From 
April, 1876, both he and his brother Murad were kept 
under strict surveillance and not allowed to take an}' 
part in the political movements going on in Constanti- 
nople. 

Abdul Aziz, the reigning Sultan, was determined to 
defy the Turkish law of succession and proclaim his 
son in June, as heir presumptive to the throne, thus 
displacing Murad and Hamid, who both were before 
him in rights of succession. At this crisis, Midhat 
Pasha, the leading and most progressive statesman and 
strong adherent of Murad, planned a revolution and 
Abdul Aziz, was deposed and Murad was proclaimed 
Sultan, May 31st, and so recognized by the Western pow- 
ers : but he was never girded with the sword of Oth- 
man in the Mosque of Eyout, a ceremony equivalent 
to a Western Coronation. 

His ill-health, increased by excessive use of liquor 
and the mistaken treatment of his physician, rendered 
him mentally incapable of ruling : though a cele- 
brated Dr. Liedersdorf, sent for from Vienna, is said 
to have stated, " If I had Sultan Murad under my 
own care in Vienna, I would have him all right in six 
weeks." 

In consequence of this mental indisposition, Murad 
V. was deposed August 30th, and Abdul Hamid II. 
was proclaimed on August 31st, and girded with the 



THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID. 215 

sword of Othman a few days later. He was then liv- 
ing in a small palace in the Valley of Sweet Waters, 
which he inherited from his father. He was very fond 
of agriculture, and amused himself by cultivating a 
model farm. To his mother, who is said to have been 
an Armenian from Georgia, in Russia, he owed a qual- 
ity very rare in the family of the Sultans, the spirit of 
economy. He never allowed his expenses to exceed 
his income before he came to the throne. In this 
charming retreat he resided quietly with his wife and 
two children, all eating at the same table, and showing 
in his dress and surroundings his preference for Euro- 
pean modes of life. The only concession he made to Ori- 
entalism in personal dress, was in wearing the " fez," 
which he disliked, but continued to wear as the neces- 
sary token of his nationality. 

Six weeks after he was proclaimed Sultan, it was an- 
nounced that a scheme of reform for the whole Otto- 
man Empire, was in course of preparation. It was 
published in January, and while it was a much less 
sweeping reform than Midhat wished, it provided for a 
Senate and a House of Representatives, which last was 
to take control of the finances, the system of taxation 
was to be revised and better laws were to be enacted 
for the provinces. 

Election to the lower house was to be b}^ universal 
suffrage ; for the upper house electors were restricted 
to two classes : the noble and the educated. 

Abdul Hamid cordially disapproved of this check on 
the absolute power enjoyed by predecessors. 

He was willing to do justice and to temper it with 
mercy, but to be placed in the position of a servant to 
his people was odious to himself. 



216 THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID. 

At a council held, when only his other ministers were 
present, the Sultan asked, what should be done with 
Mid hat Pasha. Two of those present said: "Let 
him die." But Abdul Hamid was not bloodthirsty, 
hence he only banished him to Arabia where two years 
later he was poisoned. 

The Sultan was restive under the constitution and 
the Pashas, against whose cruelty and extortion the 
most of the reforms were aimed, sided with their sov- 
ereign. In 1875, Midhat Pasha had outlined the situa- 
tion thus to the English Ambassador : 

"The Sultan's Empire is being rapidly brought to 
destruction ; corruption has reached a pitch that it has 
never before attained. The service of the state is 
starved, while untold millions are being poured into 
the palaces and the proviuces are being ruined by the 
uncontrolled exactions of the Governors who purchase 
their appointments at the palace : and nothing can save 
the country but a complete change of system." 

And the very worst governed portion of all his 
Empire was Armenia. We are officially told that 
its government for the last thirty years has been hor- 
rible. 

In an Armenian village recently plundered by band- 
its, the famous Hungarian Professor, Arminius Vam- 
bery, an intimate friend of the Sultan, once asked, 
" Why do you not get help from the Governor of Eize- 
roum?" "Because," answered the villagers, "he is at 
the head of the robbers. God alone and his representa- 
tive on earth — the Russian Czar, can help us." This 
brigandage, is one of the greatest curses of the Turk- 
ish Empire, exercising a rule of terror and oppression, 
and now legalized, apparently, by the transformation of 




Types and Costumes— Kurdish Gentlemen. 



THE SULTAN ABDUL HAM1D. 219 

the Kurdish horsemen — robbers — into the Hamidieh — 
the Sultan's own Cavalry. 

Such being the spirit of the Pashas who had grown 
rich by plunder and official theft, of course they were 
opposed to the Constitution, and by the will of the 
Sultan it was abrogated after two sessions had been 
held. This was soon followed by the dismissal of the 
Ministers who had formed the triumvirate, and the 
Sultan resumed his despotic and absolute sway. As- 
sured that England would not suffer the dismember- 
ment of his Empire we have seen him refusing to guar- 
antee the enforcement of promised reforms and pro- 
voking the war with Russia ; but as we have already 
told this story, we will give some pictures of the Sultan 
as drawn by his admirers ; leaving the horrors of the 
Armenian massacres to bear witness as to the honesty 
of his professed devotion to the welfare of his Chris- 
tian subjects and his promises to observe the terms of 
said treaty in the amelioration of the condition of all 
who were suffering under the murderous oppression of 
Kurds and Circassians. 

Professor Vambery, a most remarkable linguist who 
writes and speaks all the languages of Europe like a 
native, spent some time in Turkey a few years ago and 
was received into closest conference by the Sultan. — 
Here are extracts from what he has written of him : 

" I must own that the education of Abdul Hamid, 
like that of all Oriental princes was defective, very de- 
fective indeed ; but an iron will, good judgment and 
rare acuteness have made good this short-coming ; and 
he not only knows the multifarious relations and in- 
tricacies of his own much tried Empire but is thor- 
oughly conversant with European politics : and I am 
13 



220 THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID. 

not going far from fact when I state that it has been 
solely the moderation and self-restraint of Sultan Ab- 
dul Hamid which has saved us hitherto from a general 
European conflagration. As to his personal character, 
I have found the present ruler of the Ottoman Empire 
of great politeness, amiability and extreme gentleness. 
When sitting opposite to him during my private inter- 
views, I could not avoid being struck by his extremely 
modest attitude, by his quiet manners and by the bash- 
ful look of his eyes. * * At his table, though wine is 
served to European guests, it is not offered to the 
Sultan or any other Mohammedan. 

" His views on religion, politics and education have 
a decidedly modern tone, and yet he is a firm believer 
in the tenets of his religion, and likes to assemble 
around him the foremost Mollahs and pious Sheiks on 
whom he profusely bestows imperial favors ; but he 
does not forget from time to time to send presents to 
the Greek and the Armenian patriarchates, and noth- 
ing is more ludicrous than to hear this prince accused 
by a certain class of politicians in Europe of being a 
fanatic and an enemy to Christians, — a prince who by 
appointing a Christian for his chief medical attendant 
and a Christian for his chief minister of finance, did 
not hesitate to intrust most important duties to non- 
Mohammedans. * * *" 

[Doubtless he wanted the best men he could find as 
his physician and minister of finance, and these men 
were found among the Christians. Let the last year 
tell whether he be the friend or the enemy of the Christ- 
ians.] 

" In reference to the charge of ruthless despotism 
laid upon Sultan Abdul Hamid in connection with his 



THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID. 221 

abrogation of the charter granted during the first 
months of his reign, I will quote his own words. He 
said to me one day : — ' In Europe the soil was pre- 
pared centuries ago for liberal institutions, and now I 
am asked to transplant a sapling to the foreign, stony 
and rugged ground of Asiatic life. Let me clear away 
the thistles, and stones, let me till the soil, and provide 
for irrigation because rain is very scarce in Asia and 
then we may transport the new plant ; and believe me 
that nobody will be more delighted at its thriving than 
myself.'" 

Thus far the professor. And now, it is to be won- 
dered if he calls the extermination of the Armenians 
the clearing away of the thistles and does he propose 
to irrigate the soil of Armenia with the blood of its 
noblest race. Is he not rather slitting the veins of 
Asia Minor and pouring out its heart's best blood ? 

That the Sultan was a warm personal friend of Gen. 
Lew Wallace does not make him any the less a despot ; 
neither because Hon. S. S. Cox, who succeeded Gen. 
Wallace was an admirer of the Sultan as the following 
quotation will show ; does that make him the less a 
fanatic and the most remorseless shedder of blood that 
Europe has seen since the days of Tamerlane. 

" The Sultan is of middle size and of Turkish type. 
He wears a full black beard, is of a dark complexion 
and has very expressive eyes. His forehead is large, 
indicative of intellectual power. He is very gracious 
in manner though at times seemingly a little embar- 
rassed. * * * 

"As Caliph he is the divine representative of Moham- 
med. His family line runs back with unbroken links 
to the thirteenth century. He is one of the most in- 



222 THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID, 

dustrious, painstaking, Jionest, conscientious and vigi- 
lant rulers of the world. He is amiable and just 
withal. His every word betokens a good heart and a 
sagacious head. [What a comment the horrors of the 
many months just past furnishes to this flattering esti- 
mate a Mohammedian conscience !] 

"He is an early riser. After he leaves his seraglio 
and has partaken of a slight repast his secretaries wait 
on him with portfolios. He peruses all the official cor- 
respondence and current reports. He gives up his time 
till noon to work of this character. Then his breakfast 
is served. After that he walks in his park and gar- 
dens, looks in at his aviaries, perhaps stirs np his 
menagerie, makes an inspection of his two hundred 
horses in their fine stables, indulges his little daughters 
in a row upon the fairy lake which he has had con- 
structed, and it may be attends a performance at the 
little theatre provided for his children in the palace. 
At 5 P. M. having accomplished most of his official 
work, he mounts his favorite white horse, Ferhan, a 
war-scarred veteran for a ride in the park. The park 
of the palace Yildiz where he lives comprises some 
thousand acres. It is surrounded by high walls and 
protected by the soldiery." 

But all this does not tell us what the man at heart 
is anjr more than if some flatterer of Nero should ex- 
patiate on the esthetic taste of Nero and his love of the 
fine arts and his skill as a violinist when he sat at night 
in his marble palace and enjoyed the blazing magnifi- 
cence of Rome. It is as foreign to the present situa- 
tion as if some one should praise the skill of Nero's 
horsemanship as he drove his mettled steeds with firm 
reins along the course lighted by the blazing torches 



THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID. 223 

of the tar-besmeared Christians, whom he accused of 
having set the city on fire. 

The persistence with which the Sultan has followed 
out his purpose of exterminating the Armenians, in 
the face of a horrified and indignant Christendom, 
marks his audacity and contempt of Christians as sub- 
lime in height, as infernal in spirit, and bottomless in its 
cruelty. 

Gibbon in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Em- 
pire can scarcely find polite words enough to express 
his contempt for the forms of early Christianity and 
praised the Turks as possessing the rarest of qualities 
when he said : " The Turks are distinguished for their 
patience, discipline, sobriety, bravery, honesty and mod- 
esty," and Hon. Sunset Cox echoed the same when 
he wrote, "It is because of these solid characteristics, 
and in spite of the harem, in spite of autocratic power, 
in spite of the Janissary and the • seraglio that this 
race and rule remain potent in the Orient. His heart 
(the heart of the present Sultan) is touched by suffer- 
ing, and his views lean strongly to that toleration of the 
various races and religions of his realm, which other 
and more boastful nations would do well to imitate." 

The facts given in the chapters on The Reign of 
Terror will be sufficient commentary on such praise. 

Probably no building in all Europe has so many as- 
sociations with tragical events as that of the palace of 
the Sultan of Turkey — the autocrat whose rule is ab- 
solute over more than thirty million subjects. From 
this palace go forth the edicts which involve the death 
of thousands and which control the governments of dis- 
tant provinces. Fifty years ago the Sultans governed 
a huge territory in Europe, but one province after an- 



224 THE SULTAN ABDUL HAM1D. 

other has been freed from their yoke, until Turkey in 
Europe has dwindled in size to less than half its former 
area. But the Asiatic possession of the Sultan have 
not diminished, and the events in Armenia which have 
recently horrified the whole world, show what that pos- 
session means. Nor are these massacres a new or un- 
paralleled feature of Turkish rule. Similar horrors 
have been perpetrated before under the cognizance of 
the Sultans and the only reason why the indignation 
now aroused on the subject is deeper and more intense, 
is that it is now impossible to conceal them, and in the 
days of the telegraph and cheap newspapers they are 
set in the light of publicity. The Turk is no worse 
now than he has always been, and is only trying to 
govern at the end of the nineteenth century as he gov- 
erned in the sixteenth. As an eminent writer has said : 
" The Turk is still the aboriginal savage encamped on 
the ruins of a civilization which he destroyed." 

In some respects Abdul Hamid is better than his 
predecessors, and until the reports of the Armenian 
horrors were published, he was believed to be a great 
deal better ; but they have proved that he has the same 
nature, and is at heart as fierce and relentless as they. 
The character of the man is of so much greater mo- 
ment to his subjects than in other lands, because of the 
utter absence of even the semblance of constitutional 
government. The government of Turkey is a des- 
potism pure and simple. It is tempered only by the 
dread of assassination or deposition, and even those 
calamities may come rather from a wise and merci- 
ful policy than from massacre. The Pashas who 
surround the Sultan, the successors of those who de- 
posed his uncle and his brother, applaud the atrocities, 



THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID. 225 

and are willing instruments in the perpetration of them. 
The danger to the Sultan's person is far more likely to 
come through weakness and lack of vigor in persecu- 
tion than from indignation at wholesale slaughter. The 
Sultan fully appreciates this fact, and lives in constant 
dread of treachery. 

An interesting story of the present Sultan is re- 
lated by Mr. W. T. Stead, in an article in his Review 
of Reviews, which in some measure explains the singular 
mixture in his character of fanaticism, such as that 
which produced the Armenian massacres, with the 
marked ability and intelligence he displays in the con- 
duct of national affairs. It appears that when he was 
a mere youth, he was conspicuous even in Constanti- 
nople, which is notorious for its immorality, for the 
gross excesses of his private life. There was then little 
probability of his ever ascending the throne, and as he 
was condemned by his position to a life of idleness, he 
plunged into all the wickedness of the capital, and lived 
a life of debauchery. Suddenly he changed his course. 
He quitted his evil ways and became a devout follower 
of Mohammed, was attentive at the Mosque and gave 
all his thoughts to his religion. From that time until 
now his religious enthusiasm has been the most promi- 
nent feature of his character. But with the change 
came a fierce intolerance, a desire that others should 
follow his example and determination, evinced since 
his accession, that in his own dominions no enemy of 
the Prophet, nor any who did not avow themselves his 
followers, should have peace or rest until they accepted 
the faith. This spirit accounts for the crusade against 
the Armenians whom he hates because they are Chris- 
tians. 



226 THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID. 

The real cause for all the trouble in the Turkish 
Empire will be found to lie within the spirit and pur- 
pose of the Sultan himself. His conduct towards the 
Powers will serve to most abundantly confirm this 
view. 

The condition of Armenia under Turkish rule has 
for many years been a scandal to Christendom. After 
the horrors of the Blood bath of Sassoun had been 
made known to the world a commission of the Powers 
were sent to investigate and report on the massacres 
which had been perpetrated. 

The investigation of the latest atrocities showed that 
the Armenians had been wantonly tortured and mur- 
dered, and that indescribable atrocities had been per- 
petrated. Men, women, and children were proved to 
have been hacked to pieces, and no respect had been 
shown to age or sex. Whole villages had been depop- 
ulated, and the fact of any community being Christian 
seemed to have been sufficient to provoke the murder- 
ous hostility of the authorities. Where the Turks did 
not commit the outrages themselves, they remained in- 
active while the Kurds committed them, and their in- 
activity amounted to connivance, because the Armeni- 
ans are not allowed to arm themselves for their own 
protection. There was legitimate grounds for foreign 
powers urging reforms upon the Sultan, as in 1878, 
when the Berlin Congress was inclined to strip him of 
his Armenian provinces, he promised that Armenia 
should be governed better than it had been, and En- 
gland became sponsor for the performance of his prom- 
ises. Under those conditions the Sultan was allowed 
to retain the provinces, and his failure to effect the re- 
forms was therefore a distinct breach of faith. The 



THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID. 227 

Ambassadors of England, France and Russia accord- 
ingly presented to the Sultan on May 11th a demand 
for twelve specific changes in the government of Ar- 
menia. The scheme outlined included the appoint- 
ment of a High Commissioner, with whom should be 
associated a commission to sit at, Constantinople, for 
the purpose of carrying out all reforms. The full de- 
tails of the plan were not made public, but among the 
suggestions made were these : The appointment of 
governors and vice-governors in six Armenian vilayets 
— Van, Erzeroum, Sivas, Bitlis, Harpoot, and Trebizond ; 
that either the governor or the vice-governor of each 
vilayet should be a Christian ; that the collection of 
taxes be on a better basis ; with various other reforms 
in the judicial and administrative departments : espe- 
cially that torture should be abolished ; the gen- 
darmerie to be recruited from Christians as well as 
Mohammedans, and the practical disarmament of the 
Kurds. Note the names of these vilayets as they are 
the centers of the horrible massacres that followed 
the Porte's true answer to all its own promises of re- 
form . 

To this project of reforms the following memorandum 
was attached : — 

" The appended scheme, containing the general state- 
ment of the modifications which it would be necessary 
to introduce in regard to the administration, financial 
and judicial organization of the vilayets mentioned, it 
has appeared useful to indicate in a separate memo- 
randum certain measures exceeding the scope of an ad- 
ministrative regulation, but which form the very basis 
of this regulation and the adoption of which by the 
Porte is a matter of primary importance." 



228 THE SULTAN ABDUL HAM1D. 

These different points are : 

1. The eventual reduction of the number of vilayets. 

2. The guarantee for the selection of the valis. 

3. Amnesty for Armenians sentenced or in prison 
on political charges. 

4. The return of the Armenian emigrants or exiles. 

5. The final settlement of pending legal proceedings 
for common law crimes and offences. 

6. The inspection of prisons and an inquiry into the 
condition of the prisoners. 

7. The appointment of a high commission of surveil- 
lance for the application of reforms in the provinces. 

8. The creation of a permanent committee of control 
at Constantinople. 

9. Reparation for the loss suffered b} r the Armenians 
who were victims of the events at Sassoun, Talori, etc. 

10. The regularization of matters connected with re- 
ligious conversion. 

11. The maintenance and strict application of the 
rights and privileges conceded to the Armenians. 

12. The position of the Armenians in the other vil- 
ayets of Asiatic Turkey. 

After much delay the Porte replied that it could not 
accept the proposals made. Of course not. Why 
should the Sultan do anything to favor the Armenians 
or even to prevent the recurrence of these terrible out- 
rages unless compelled to do so b} r something more 
than advice ! Yet the Sultan would be anxious to 
know what the three Powers would do about it. He 
was not kept long in suspense, so far as England was 
concerned. Orders were issued for the English fleet to 
procr^d to Constantinople, and France and Russia 
werf 'nformed of the fact. The news reached the Sul- 



THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID. 229 

tan and appears to have convinced him that it was not 
safe to trifle any longer with the demands of the 
powers. He accordingly telegraphed that he would 
accede to the principle of reform outlined for him. 

The Sultan, learning also that the British Cabinet 
had met to consider Turkey's reply to the plan of re- 
form for Armenia, submitted by Great Britain, France 
and Russia, telegraphed to Rustem Pasha, the Turkish 
Ambassador in London, instructing him to ask the Earl 
of Kimberly, the British Foreign Minister, to postpone 
a decision in the matter." 

The Earl of Kimberly acceded to the request. In the 
meanwhile the Porte handed to the British, French 
and Russian Ambassadors a fresh and satisfactory 
reply, acceding to the principle of control by the 
Powers, but asking that the period be limited to three 
years. 

While these promises were being so freely made, let- 
ters from Armenia, in July, represented Turkish cruelty 
as unabated ; the position of affairs never so grave and 
critical ; and the Armenians to have reached the ulti- 
mate limit of despair. Yet in August the world was 
informed that Turkey had decided to accept in their 
entirety the Armenian reforms demanded by the 
Powers, and that the acceptance of these reforms was 
primarily due to the pressure brought to bear on the 
government by Sir Philip Currie, the British Ambas- 
sador, who communicated to the government a con- 
fidential note from Lord Salisbury to the effect that 
the Porte must accept the proposals of the powers un- 
conditionally, or England would use sharper means 
than those adopted by Lord Rosebery to settle affairs 
in Armenia. 



230 THE SULTAN ABDUL HA MID. 

The summer passed in fruitless and endless negotia- 
tions. Later in September a press telegram from Lon- 
don voiced the situation as follows : — 

" European diplomacy seems already weary of the 
question, which Turkish diplomacy has handled with an 
evident ability, based upon temporization and inertia, 
as well as upon its knowledge of the jealousy existing 
between the three Powers which proclaim so loudly 
that they want nothing else but the happiness of the 
Armenians. 

"The question has not progressed one iota, despite all 
the negotiations, memoranda, appointments of com- 
missions, and even the (awful !) rumor, one month ago, 
of the assembling of the British fleet in Besika Bay, at 
the entrance of the Dardanelles. England, France and 
Russia, however, had the way clear before them, if they 
had been really in accord and seriously willing to ac- 
complish the humanitarian mission they pretended to 
assume. Article sixty-one of the Berlin Treaty gave 
the Powers the right to see that the same rights granted 
to Bulgaria should be granted also to Armenia. This 
article has remained a dead letter in regard to the lat- 
ter country since 1878. When the Sassoun atrocities 
were recentl} r committed, the Powers merely sent to the 
Porte a memorandum, requesting it to cease its perse- 
cution of Armenians. During two or three months the 
European Ministers at Pera awaited the decision of the 
Sultan. Whenever they sent their dragomans to the 
Foreign Minister, Said Pasha caused his secretary to 
answer in the Spanish manner, ' hasta la manana ' (to- 
morrow a reply will be given). Finally the three 
Powers thought of using the rights conferred upon them 
by Article sixty-one, and required Abdul Hamid to con- 



THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID. 231 

sent that a European Commission of Control should be 
sent to Armenia, in order to see that reforms be practi- 
cally applied there. The Sultan will fight stubbornly 
before accepting them, which would amount to the 
abandonment of a portion of his sovereignty, and it re- 
mains to be seen how much the Powers, jealous of their 
respective influence at the Porte, are in earnest and how 
anxious they are promptly to enforce the acceptation 
of their Control Commission." 

The Turks continued to play a waiting game in Ar- 
menian affairs. Remembering the treaty of Berlin, 
they were shrewd enough to play off one Power against 
another so as to retain absolute control over their inter- 
nal affairs, though they had forfeited all right to rule 
by their outrageous and brutal massacres. The Con- 
gress of Berlin was at the time a costly thing to the 
Eastern Christians but was destined to prove almost 
their utter ruin. 

The Turks did not find it hard to pick flaws in the 
plan of administrative reform when they did not intend 
to have any reform. The whole scheme was without 
any security against the renewal of the Sassoun mas- 
sacres. Everybody who was interested in Armenia 
protested against the plan, but it was the best that mere 
diplomacy could do. 

Thus the summer passed filled with plenty of promises, 
but without any fulfilment, until suddenly the signal 
was given and the horrors of Sassoun were reenactetl 
throughout all the provinces of Armenia. 

At a mass meeting of Armenians held in New York, 
free expression was given to the feeling of horror with 
which the news of the Turks' outrages was received 
there. There seemed to be no doubt in the minds of these 



232 THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID. 

people as to the truth of the reports from Asia Minor, 
and many were of the opinion that still more terrible 
news would be received. Mr. Dionian presided, and in 
calling the meeting to order, said that Armenia and 
Turkey could never be friends, and that Armenia must 
either be liberated or annihilated. 

Dr. P. Ayvard also spoke, and then Dr. S. Aparcian 
offered resolutions, which were unanimously adopted, 
saying in part : — 

Resolved, That we most respectfully and appealingly 
call upon all the great Powers of Europe, and of our 
adopted and well loved country of America, to the de- 
plorable condition of Armenia, and trust that the moral 
interests of Europe will demand taking immediate steps 
to put an end to this rule of anarchy and lawlessness 
prevailing there, and that the United States of America 
will give their moral support. 

Knowing the Turk as they did, the Armenians in 
this country were prepared for the confirmation of these 
reports. In due time it came. 

A prominent Turk laughed when he saw the report, 
and said it was a mere fabrication, and that if there was 
any slaughter it was not committed b}' the Turks. As 
to the Turks being opposed to the Armenians because 
of their being Christians, he said : " People who have 
lived in the Orient know that to be absurd. We have 
Christians and Jews among us, and as long as they 
obey the laws of the land they are treated the same as 
the members of our faith. Of course," he added, " when 
people become revolutionists and conspire against our 
Government, then we take measures to punish them. 
The Armenians are revolutionists, and their revolution- 
ary societies exist in every city in this country, while 
the head-centre is at Naples." 



THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID. 233 

The Turk laughed and blamed the Armenian revolu- 
tionists. The Porte denied the outrages at first then 
charged the trouble to the Armenians, until the terrible 
situation at Trebizond and Erzeroum could no longer be 
kept from the knowledge of Christendom. The prisons 
in Trebizond were filled with wounded and helpless 
Armenians : the Mohammedans were well armed and 
the governor entirety in sympathy with, even if not the 
instigator of the outrages. 

Meanwhile the European manager of the United 
Press at Constantinople gave the first detailed account of 
the appalling massacres to which Armenian Christians 
had been subjected since the Sultan Abdul Hamid gave 
perfidious assent to the reforms demanded by the Euro- 
pean Powers. The harrowing and shameful facts were 
told on the authority of American Christian men, who 
witnessed them, and their narrative had the unqualified 
endorsement of Mr. Terrell, the United States Minister 
to Turkey. In view of such conclusive testimony to 
the duplicity and faithlessness of an incorrigible ruler, 
it seems incredible that Christian peoples will let their 
rescuing hands be stayed any longer by sordid jealousy 
and greed, or that they will any longer consent to bear 
a share of the responsibility for such crimes against 
humanity. The blood of the slaughtered thousands of 
their fellow Christians in Armenia cries against them 
from the ground. 

By this trustworthy evidence the conclusion was 
justified that within the six provinces mainly concerned 
in the proposed reforms, no fewer than fifteen thousand 
Armenians were assassinated, while the number of 
those rendered homeless and robbed of all their pos- 
sessions, did not fall short of two hundred thousand. 



234 THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID. 

The places and elates exposed the aim of the hellish 
atrocities committed, and drove home the guilt to 
their authors and accomplices. On October 20, the 
Sultan authorized Kiamil Pasha, his Grand Vizier, 
to accept the reforms proposed for the Armenian 
provinces by the European Powers, and to promise that 
they should be forthwith carried out. On the next 
day, October 21, when there had been ample time for 
the reception of orders telegraphed from Constanti- 
nople, the Kurds and Turks throughout Armenia, 
openly incited and assisted by the regular troops, en- 
tered on a scheme of wholesale, murder and devasta- 
tion. The purpose of this preconcerted iniquity, as 
disclosed by its disgraceful antecedents and its horrible 
results, was to vent upon the helpless Armenians the 
venom and the spite engendered by enforced submis- 
sion to the will of the Christian Powers. It was to en- 
force at one vindictive stroke the programme of ex- 
termination devised in 1890, but prosecuted hitherto 
with some show of secrecy and caution. It was to 
make of Armenia a solitude, and then with satanic 
mockery, to offer exact fulfilment of the pledge of peace 
and of reform. 

All the circumstances showed that with this flagitious 
rupture of the Sultan's plighted word, the person directly 
and primarily chargeable was the Sultan himself. He 
sanctioned the plot of extermination, if he did not per- 
sonally concoct it in 1890, the relentless though disa- 
vowed execution of which at last provoked the interposi- 
tion of Christian Powers. No sooner had Kiamil Pasha 
been reluctantly permitted to agree to the reforms ex- 
acted for Armenia, than he was summarily dismissed bj r 
Abdul Hamid from the Grand Vizierate, lest he should 



THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID. 237 

execute the agreement in good faith. The new Minis- 
ters selected by the Sultan were drawn mainly from the 
scum of Constantinople, and their first act was to pro- 
test that time must be given to the Porte for the proper 
enforcement of the reform project. Time was needed 
to render reforms superfluous through the sweeping de- 
struction of its intended beneficiaries. It was needed 
to perpetrate the design of annihilation on a scale of 
vast proportions. The Sultan well wished to hide his 
privity to such a devilish transaction, but he dared not 
disavow his agents, lest they should divulge his instruc- 
tions. Accordingly, when high Turkish officials, un- 
mistakably implicated in the Armenian enormities, 
were subjected to the nominal penalty of a recall at the 
imperative instance of England's representative, they 
were decorated and promoted by Abdul Hamicl, whose 
secret aims and wishes were thus betrayed. 

On November 10, the Kurds made an attack on Har- 
poot, but were easily repulsed. On November 11, a 
party of the soldiers and leading Turks met the Kurds 
in conference, during the progress of which a bugle was 
sounded, at which signal the soldiers withdrew. The 
Kurds thereupon advanced with yells. There was no 
effort on the part of the soldiers and Armenians to re- 
sist, and the Turks joined in the killing and plunder- 
ing. The Armenian school was burned, and then be- 
gan an attack upon the Christian quarter, the buildings 
in which were also set on fire. The Christians were 
without weapons of any sort, and trusted entirely to 
the Government to protect them. The Armenians re- 
mained in the girls' seminary until that building was 
set on fire, and then they appealed to the Governor for 
protection. They obtained a guard of soldiers, all but 
14 



238 THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID. 

two of whom afterward deserted. These two remained 
and carried out the orders issued to them, to fight the 
fires which had been kindled. 

The burning continued for three days. The Arme- 
nians were stripped of everything but their clothing. 
All the Christian villages around were burned by the 
Kurds. The outrages continued unchecked until the 
Government at Constantinople ordered the troops to 
take action. Fourteen Kurds were then shot, when the 
murders and pillaging ceased instantly. The districts 
of Diarbekir, Malatia, Arabkir, Kyin and Palu were 
made desolate. Thirty-five villages were destro}'ed, 
and thousands of the inhabitants embraced Islamism in 
consequence of the pressure brought to bear upon 
them. 

The Turkish troops which were on their way to Zei- 
toun to suppress the trouble there, were concentrated 
at Marash, where they awaited the return of the dele- 
gation sent to Zeitoun to negotiate with the Armenians 
in control there for their surrender. 

The Government said they were projecting more ex- 
tensive relief work, and would welcome foreign aid 
through a joint commission. 

Despite this promise of greater relief, the Govern- 
ment was bent on continuing the work of extermina- 
tion — all promises to the contrary notwithstanding. 

The tidal wave of horror and indignation swept over 
Europe, and found expression in most intense and em- 
phatic speech ; it was even felt in the Cabinets of Dip- 
lomacy and in Constantinople. There seemed to be 
more iron in their blood and energy in their action and 
purpose in their speech. 

The general situation was not changed, but it was 



THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID. 239 

apparent that a change was about to take place. The 
representatives of the Powers, some of whom were 
awaiting instructions from their Governments in regard 
to the matter of sending additional guardboats into the 
Bosphorus, seemed to be unanimous in their insistence 
on the issue of permits for the admission of such boats 
by the Sultan, and the Ambassadors held a meeting to 
consider the situation as presented by the Sultan's re- 
fusal to permit the passage of the additional boats 
through the straits, and to decide on a conceited plan 
of action. 

For several days the wires were hot w r ith the asser- 
tion that all the Powers were united and determined to 
carry their demands to a successful termination. The 
Sultan was unofficially informed that if he continued 
to maintain his stubborn attitude, a forced entry of the 
Dardanelles would possibly be made. 

As previously, and with equal pertinence, at this 
hour of crisis the continental press devoted much space 
to the affairs of the Orient, and the Sultan was the re- 
cipient of much newspaper advice. One writer in par- 
ticular urged him to remain master of the situation, 
and to show himself promptly disposed to fulfil his 
engagements. . In that case the crisis would remain 
an internal one ; but if it should assume an inter- 
national aspect it would be peacefully adjusted on 
the basis of the maintenance of the integrity of 
Turkey which would be asserted b} r France and Rus- 
sia, the two Pacific Powers. It was also telegraphed 
from Constantinople that the Czar, in reply to a per- 
sonal appeal from the Sultan, consented to waive 
the Russian demand for a second guardship in the 
Bosphorus. At the same time she was prepared to 



240 THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID. 

resent any aggressive action that England might un- 
dertake alone. 

The Sultan knew very well that there would be no 
concerted action of the Powers — that England and 
Russia would never agree as to any joint action, and 
yet to give color of necessity to his refusal, it was given 
out that the Powers had decided to depose him, using 
for this purpose the forces aboard the second guard- 
ships which they demanded should be permitted to en- 
ter the Bosphorus. This was to stir up the populace 
against the Powers. Then to furnish another excuse 
the report was circulated that the Sultan was in daily 
fear of sharing the fate of Tshmail Pasha at the hands 
of the Softas and the Young Turkish party. 

The Sultan's letter to Lord Salisbury was often 
quoted as a confirmation of the report that the Sultan 
was panic stricken. It will be recalled that Lord 
Salisbury in his speech at the Lord Mayor's banquet on 
November 9th, declared that, if the Sultan will not 
heartily resolve to do justice to them, the most in- 
genious constitution that can be framed will not avail 
to protect the Armenians ; that through the Sultan 
alone can any real permanent blessings be conferred on 
his subjects. " What if the Sultan,", exclaimed the 
British Prime Minister — 

" What if the Sultan is not persuaded ? I am bound 
to say that the news reaching us from Constantino- 
ple does not give much cheerfulness in that respect. 
You will readily understand that I can only speak 
briefly on such a matter. It would be dangerous to 
express the opinions that are on my lips lest they injure 
the cause of peace and good order." 

These words seemed to be freighted with some 



THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID. 241 

ominous significance, and they would have been, if 
there had been any purpose to make them mean any- 
thing. 

In a remarkable letter to Lord Salisbury which he 
read publicly at a conference in London, the Sultan 
used a most beseeching tone to show that the possible 
dissolution of his Empire was lying heavy on his mind. 
It sounded like a most abject plea for mercy, a cry for 
the postponement of the fate which the Powers seemed 
to be preparing for the terrified monarch. In this note 
the Sultan said : 

" I repeat, I will execute the reforms. I will take 
the paper containing them, place it before me and see 
that it is put in force. This is my earnest determination 
and I give my word of honor, I wish Lord Salisbury to 
know this and I beg and desire his Lordship, having 
confidence in these declarations, to make another speech 
by virtue of the friendly feeling and disposition he has 
for me and my country. I shall await the result of 
this message with the greatest anxiety." 

It will be noted that the Sultan's communication con- 
tained no denial that there are wrongs to be remedied 
in the administration of his government in Armenia and 
elsewhere. There is no plea that the terms of solemn 
treaty obligations have been observed. The letter is a 
tacit confession that the interposition of the Powers as 
far as it had gone was justifiable and that the reports 
of the atrocities in Asia Minor, which were at first 
strenuously denied by the Turkish Government, were 
true. 

It 'was only a shrewd plea of helplessness to persuade 
the Powers not to enforce their demands and nothing 
more. In his rejoinder to the Sultan's letter, Lord 



242 THE SULTAN ABDUL HAM ID. 

Salisbury substantially admits the hopelessness of re- 
form under the Sultan's government as now constituted 
and administered. 

A few days after this correspondence the fear of the 
Sultan seemed to have vanished, and he was brave 
enough to refuse permission to the Powers to send extra 
guardboats into the Bosphorus. 

At this time it looked as if Sir Philip Currie, the 
British Ambassador, would act alone, and that he really 
meant to force the passage of the Dardanelles. 

But the Sultan knew he would not dare to do it, and 
he knew also that the Powers were not agreed to use 
force. England proved herself impotent before the 
crafty diplomacy of the timid Sultan. 

It is folly at this day to pretend to believe that the 
Sultan ever intended of his " spontaneous good-will " to 
protect the Armenians even as human beings from the 
cruelty of Kurd or Turkish officials. 

The horrors of December and January give the lie 
direct to every promise made at Constantinople. The 
Sultan had outwitted England, if indeed England ever 
were in earnest, and by circulating a rumor of a Turco- 
Russian alliance, most effectually checked all danger of 
intervention by force — the only argument to which the 
Turk will ever yield — and proceeded to commit yet 
greater crimes if that were possible. 

Under the very eyes of the Russian, English, and 
French delegates at Moush, the witnesses who had the 
courage to speak the truth to the representatives of the 
Powers were thrown into prison, and not a hand was 
raised to protect them : and within a stone's throw of 
the foreign consuls and the missionaries, loyal Armenians 
were being hung up by the heels, the hair of their heads 



THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID. 243 

and beards plucked out one by one, their bodies branded 
with red-hot irons, and defiled in beastly ways, and 
their wives and daughters dishonored before their 
very eyes. And all that philanthropic England has 
to offer its proteges, for whose protection she holds 
Cyprus as a pledge, is eloquent sympathy. 

She received Cyprus by secret convention, and now 
holds it as the price of innocent blood. The rewards 
of iniquity are in her hand. It was worse than folly ; 
it was the refinement of cruelty to send a commission 
to investigate, the outrages in Armenia, thereby irritat- 
ing the Turk to the height of possible fury as his deeds 
were proclaimed to the world and then leave him free 
to wreak his compressed wrath upon the Christians for 
whose protection no hand would be uplifted. The 
Powers saw Armenia in misery, bleeding, ctying, and 
passed by on the other side, saying, we are bound by the 
terms of the Berlin Treaty not to interfere with Turkey 
in the administration of her domestic affairs ; we are 
sorry for you ; we wish the Sultan would listen to our 
advice and not be quite so severe in his chastisement, 
but really you must have given him some cause for his 
anger. 

Yes, such provocation as the lamb gave to the wolf 
that charged it with soiling the water, though it was 
drinking much farther down the stream. 

The humiliation of England as one of the Great 
Powers was complete when in the House of Commons 
March 16th, in reply to questions that were put to him 
Mr. Curzon Under Secretary of Foreign Affairs was 
obliged to say that reports received by the Government 
confirmed the statements that a great number of forced 
conversions from Christianity to Islamism were still 



244 THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID. 

being made in Asia Minor. Under the circumstances 
of cruelty and systematic debauchery of defenceless 
Christian women through the devastated, districts of 
Anatolia, he said, the British Consuls in Asia Minor 
had been instructed to report such cases, and represen- 
tations in regard to them were constantly being made 
to the Government in Constantinople. 

Representations were constantly being made ! What 
did the Porte care for representations ? How England 
was compelled to quaff the contempt even of the Turk 
who laughs or sneers as his mood may be over these 
representations of English Consuls and missionaries. 
The Sublime Porte — which means the Sultan — cabled 
the Turkish Legation at Washington to deny most 
emphatically the statements that appeared in the 
American religious press regarding forcible conversions 
to Islam. 

The Sublime Porte affirmed that "the stories related 
therein are mere inventions of revolutionists, and their 
friends intended to attract the sympathy of credulous 
people. There is no forcible conversion to Islamism in 
Turkey and no animosity against Protestantism." This 
is sublime impudence. The statements thus contra- 
dicted, represented conditions certified to by official 
reports, by careful investigations made by correspond- 
ents of newspapers in England and the United States, 
and by hundreds of private letters from persons in 
the region where the massacres occurred. Moreover, 
this declaration of the Sultan is contradicted by centur- 
ies of Mohammedan history, b}*" the ruins of ancient 
churches throughout all Asia Minor and Mesopotamia, 
and by daily prayer concerning the Christians: — 

"Oh Allah make their children orphans, * * give 



THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID, 245 

them and their families * * their women, their 
children, * * their possessions and their race, their 
wealth and their lands as booty to the Moslems, O Lord 
of all creatures." 

The Softas are, properly speaking, the pupils who are 
engaged in the study of Mussulman theology and law 
in the medresses, or schools attached to the mosques, 
the range of their studies, however, being practically 
limited to learning to read the Koran. The Softas 
take their name from a corruption of the past-participle 
soukhte — burned — applied to them because they are 
supposed to be consumed by the love of study of sacred 
things, and devoted to a life of meditation. The Softas 
follow their studies in the school building, sleeping and 
eating at the lmaretts, where free lodgings and food are 
provided for them out of the legacies of the pious. If 
their families can afford to do so, they furnish them 
with clothing and bedding; if not, these are given to 
them from the same charitable fund. The number of 
Softas is very large, for one reason because of their 
exemption from military service. After long- continued 
study of Arabic, and the Koran and its commentaries, 
the Softa, after an examination which, though nomi- 
nally arduous, is almost invariably passed successfully, 
takes the title of Khodja. 

The Khodja — khavadje, reader or singer — a scholar 
who has taken his diploma in the mediesse, teaches for 
several years, in fact till he has conducted a class of 
Softas through the same course he had himself taken, 
when, on application to the Ministry of Worship, at 
whose head is the Sheikh-ul-Islam, and, after a severe 
examination, he receives the title of Ulema. The 
Mussulman does not arrive at this dignity until he has 



246 THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID. 

reached the age of thirty or thirty-five. It confers 
numerous privileges, for those doctors escape military 
service, unless in the event of the djihad, or sacred 
war, and from their ranks are filled the Judgeships, the 
curacies (so to speak) of the mosques, the professor- 
ships in the medresses, the trusteeships connected with 
the administration of the trust funds for pious and 
charitable purposes, etc., etc. 

The Imaums — who are the real priests and have 
charge of the public religious service — are selected 
from among the Ulema. The title of Imaum comes 
from the Arabic, and is the equivalent of leader or out- 
post. There is as a rule one Imaum to each mosque of 
minor importance — messdjid — while two, or, at most, 
three, one of whom is designated the chief authority, 
are appointed to the principal mosques — djamis. Even 
the Ulema — the word is plural and signifies wise men 
— are subject to military duty when a holy war is pro- 
claimed. 

The term Softa includes all the grades above men- 
tioned, from the Imaum, or priest, to the Softa proper, 
or mere students of the Koran. They are usually dis- 
tinguishable in Turkey by wearing a white turban 
around their fez, or skull cap. Sultan Abdul Medjid 
some years ago endeavored to induce his subjects to 
wear a European dress, and succeeded so far that almost 
without exception every one except the very lowest in 
the public service adopted it. But the Softas to a man 
retain the old-fashioned baggy, slouchy dress which 
Abdul Medjid wished to get rid of. 

Who can believe that through fear of the uprising of 
a few thousand Softas, the Sultan planned a fanatical 
uprising of the Kurds in distant Armenia. How could 



THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID. 247 

that benefit the Softas save as it were permitted them 
to beat, kill and plunder the Armenians in Stamboul? 

If the fear of the Softas prompted it, still what a 
heartless wretch to doom seventy-five thousand to death 
and hundreds of thousands to starvation and outrage 
when to admit the fleets of Europe would have pro- 
tected him from any possible insurrection in Constan- 
tinople. 

The Turkish. Government itself was directly and ac- 
tively responsible for the outrages in Asia Minor ; it 
not merely permitted, but actually ordered them. But 
there was in Constantinople itself a most serious con- 
spiracy against the dynasty, which threatened to turn 
out the Sultan and revolutionize the whole form of 
government. As a sort of counter-irritant, which haply 
might cure this, the Government might have indeed 
resorted to any extravagance or conduct elsewhere. 
More than one monarch has begun a foreign war to 
quell disaffection at home. Why should not the Porte 
think a general harrying of the Armenians a ready way 
of allaying incipient disloyalty among the Faithful? 

This conspiracy was made by what was known as the 
Young Turkey party. It included most of the Softas, 
and students in all colleges, and many lawyers, doctors, 
officers of the army and navy, and even civil servants 
of the Porte. Back of these were multitudes of the 
general populace. There were many who denied Abdul 
Hamid's legal right to be Sultan while his elder brother 
was living. There were others, numbered by millions, 
who held that the Caliph must be an Arab and that 
the Sultan was therefore not to be recognized as the 
true Commander of the Faithful. Moreover, many, 
indeed all the leaders of Young Turkey, demanded 



248 THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID. 

the carrying out of the Hatt of 1877, establishing a 
Constitution and Parliament, and denounced the sup- 
pression of that promised system as a gross breach of 
faith and wrong to the people of the Empire. It may 
not be generally remembered ; men's memories are 
so short; but it is a fact that a constitutional govern- 
ment was once officially proclaimed in Turkey. The 
plan was conceived by Midhat Pasha, then Grand Vizier, 
and formally approved by the Sultan. A Constitution 
was promulgated. A Parliament, consisting of a 
Senate and an elective Assembly, was created, and its 
first session was opened by Abdul Hamid in person on 
March 19, 1877. Later in the same year its second 
session was opened, and the Sultan publicly declared 
that the Constitution should thenceforth be the 
supreme law of the land, in practice as well as in 
theory. But before the end of the year one designing 
politician managed to get Parliament involved in a 
corrupt job, and then, to avoid investigation, persuaded 
the Sultan to issue a decree abrogating the Constitution 
and abolishing Parliament! It was a coup d'etat, and 
it was successful ; thanks largely to the indifference of 
the Powers, and especially of England. 

The Young Turkey leaders demanded the restora- 
tion of the Constitution. In order to accomplish that 
they proposed to get rid, in some way, of the Sultan 
who first decreed and then abrogated that instrument. 
There were threats of assassination, and something 
like a reign of terror prevailed at Yildiz Kiosk. The 
Sultan took as many precautions against treachery 
as ever did the Russian Czar. The man who brought 
about the abolition of the Parliament by his rascality 
was a cabinet minister. He, too, was threatened with 



THE SULTAN ABDUL HAMID. 249 

death. The strictest repression was practiced. The 
merest hint was enough to cause a man's arrest and sum- 
mary execution. But in spite of all, the revolutionary 
movement grew. Mysterious placards appeared on the 
walls, calling for fulfilment of the Hatt of 1877. The 
name of Midhat Pasha, who suffered martyrdom for 
having given Turkey a Constitution, was spoken now 
and then, in whispers only, but in tones of grateful 
reverence. A whisper of " The Constitution," too, 
went round. Army and navy were becoming secretly 
leavened with the idea. The Sultan and his Ministers 
did not know whom to trust. 

And now that we have seen what a fiasco this 
brilliantly projected great naval demonstration proved 
itself to be : and how cleverly the Sultan played his 
pawns against Castles and Kings and Queens, and 
checkmated all the Powers of Europe, we will leave 
him in his hell of infamy bathed in the blood of nearly 
a hundred thousand slain, with the voices of agonized 
and outraged mothers and daughters raining male- 
dictions upon his accursed head, while we try to be 
patient until the rod of the Almighty shall smite the 
wicked, till the day of reckoning and of vengeance shall 
come in the day of the Lord at hand. We leave the 
Sultan in his palace to the companionship, perhaps the 
guidance, of Khalil Rifaat Pasha, the new Grand Vizier, 
the voice of history and the righteous judgments of 
God, but as for Islam, as a system of government over 
Christian populations, we can but pray daily for its 
speedy, utter and final overthrow. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

PROGRESS AND POWER OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN THE 
OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 

In the following pages have been gathered a few 
very important papers that will be of permanent value, 
but necessarily the limits are very narrow, and only a 
sketch of the beneficent influences of the sweet and 
holy Gospel of Jesus as it comes into the dark, and cruel 
and ignorant heart of Moslem heathen, or breathes a 
new life into the dead forms of the ancient church of 
Armenia can be given. It may, however, be the less 
regretted as the great missionary periodicals of every 
Christian church have given to Christendom for years 
the ever thrilling and precious stoiy of the victories 
won by grace. It is to be hoped however that these 
papers will freshen the interest of the reader and in- 
crease his faith in the coming of the kingdom of Christ 
— the kingdom of peace and good will and righteous- 
ness, wherein the terrible evils which prevail under the 
rule of Islam shall never more be done, but the will of 
God be sweetly supreme. 

A CHAPTER OF MISSION HISTORY IN TURKEY. 

BY REV. II. 0. DWIGHT, OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 

The providential preparation for the opening of the 
mission of the American Board at Constantinople sixty 
years ago was sufficiently remarkable to warrant recall- 

250 



POWER OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 251 

ing the story. In the year 1825 a tract by the Rev. 
Jonas King on the necessity of studying the Scriptures 
was published in Syria. It was translated into Arme- 
nian by Bishop Dionysius at Beirut and sent in manu- 
script to an influential Armenian at Constantinople. 
Its convincing words produced an extraordinaiy effect 
upon all who read them. Minds largely ignorant of 
the Bible and its teachings were aroused at once, to see 
the lacks of the Armenian Church in the matter of 
Bible knowledge. A school, having for its principal 
object the education of the clergy, was established at 
the Armenian Patriarchate at Constantinople, under 
charge of the eminent teacher Peshtimiljian. A rule 
limiting ordinations for the priesthood in Constantino- 
ple to graduates at this school was adopted, indicating 
slightly the ignorance which had been prevalent up to 
that time among the ordinary priesthood. Peshtimil- 
jian, the head master of the new school, was a learned 
man for his day and was also firm in his conviction that 
the Bible is the sole standard of Christian life and doc- 
trine. 

Thus it was that when five or six years later the mis- 
sionaries of the Board went to reside at Constantino- 
ple, there to urge upon the people individual examina- 
tion of the Bible, their access to Armenians was easy. 
They found a strong group in the Armenian Church 
who were already exercised with this question, although 
it was pathetically evident that they had no idea that 
any other branch of the Christian Church was equally 
interested in the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is note- 
worthy that all the first converts under the labors of 
the missionaries at Constantinople and many of the 
later ones received their first impulse towards evangel- 



252 POWER OP CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 

ical Christianity from the school of Peshtimiljian, and 
that, perhaps, before a missionary had reached Constan- 
tinople. 

An impressive ceremony in the Armenian Patriarchal 
Church in Constantinople, held in September, 1833, was 
part of the fruits of this remarkable movement. It 
was the first ordination of Armenian priests under the 
new rule. Fifteen young men, who had completed 
their studies in the school, were then solemnly set apart 
for the priest's office, and the missionaries were spe- 
cially invited to be present at the ceremony. One of the 
men ordained on that day, the Rev. Kevork Ardzrouni, 
had been brought into such relations to the missionaries, 
that after his ordination Dr. Goodell and Dr. Dwight 
could call upon him in his cell of retirement. As they 
were leaving, Der Kevork asked an interest in their 
prayers. It surely was not without significance in the 
after life of this priest that there, at the threshold of 
his church service, he received the benediction of that 
hol}^ servant of God, Rev. William Goodell, who sol- 
emnly invoked upon him the descent of the Holy Spirit 
as they stood together in the cloisters of the Armenian 
Patriarchate. 

Der Kevork's name appears repeatedly in all the 
early records of the mission at Constantinople. His 
ear^ history was inseparably linked with the history of 
the founding of the mission. He himself, full of years 
and of good works, died at Constantinople in January 
1984, at the age of one hundred and seven. From 
the first Der Kevork was prominent among the 
fifteen priests, ordained on that great day in 1833, 
as a man of learning and of piety. During five or 
six years after his ordination he was one of the prin- 



si 

03 




POWER OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 2-35 

cipal teachers in a great Armenian school in Hasskeuy, 
the religious influence of which he at least helped to 
make as pure and as strong as that of the mission 
school. He also spent much time at that early day in 
visiting from house to house among the people, reading 
the Scriptures, and exhorting the people to obey the 
gospel message. Wherever he was there was a quiet 
but powerful influence for the spread of evangelical 
ideas. 

Then came the reaction against the evangelicals. 
The more ignorant and bigoted of the clergy looked 
with terror upon the influx of light among the common 
people. It seemed to promise only harm to ecclesias- 
tics who had not, and cared not to have, spiritual un- 
derstanding of the priestly duty. The reactionary 
party gained the control of the church, they secured 
the imprisonment and banishment of the evangelical 
leaders in the Armenian Church, and the excommuni- 
cation and cruel persecution of all among the laity who 
persisted in claiming the right to read the Bible and to 
judge by it of the value of the usages of the ancient 
church. Der Kevork was one of the pious priests im- 
prisoned in 1839 and banished to a remote part of Asia 
Minor. The whole hope of reform in the Armenian 
Church seemed to be destroyed. The Sultan made a 
proclamation against the Protestants as enemies of the 
peace of the empire; the ecclesiastics, citing the fact 
that Dr. Hamlin did not make the sign of the cross or 
fast, officially asked for his expulsion from Bebek ; the 
American Episcopal missionary added fuel to the flame 
by translating into Armenian, for the edification of the 
reactionary party among the clergy, passages from the 
Missionary Herald, which he claimed showed a purpose 



256 POWER OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 

to break up the church, and in print and in speech lie 
denounced the missionaries of the Board as infidels and 
"radicals." All these circumstances had their influ- 
ence upon the mind of Der Kevork, and by the time 
this terrible persecution had led in 1846 to the organ- 
ization of a separate evangelical church at Constanti- 
nople, Der Kevork had decided to make his peace with 
his own church and to break off relations with the mis- 
sionaries. In doing this he did violence to his con- 
science. But his hope that still he might be able to aid 
in reforming his church from within, offers sufficient 
justification for charity towards this pious priest. 

It was long before Der Kevork ventured to renew in- 
timate relations with the missionaries and the evangel- 
ical Armenians. I can remember, forty years ago, be- 
ing taken by my father to see Der Kevork in his home 
in Hasskeuy. There was evident constraint in their 
conversation, but the old affection of twenty years be- 
fore still existed. And when the old man — for his 
beard even then was white as snow — laid his hand on 
my head and said, " God bless you, my son, and make 
you a good man ! : ' it was like a blessing from a man of 
God. 

As the conscience of the venerable priest more and 
more resumed its sway over his life he became more and 
more earnest in teaching: evangelical truth. His great 
age made it necessary some time ago for him to commit 
the principal part of his parish duties to an assistant, 
happily a kindred spirit. But his influence in the Ar- 
menian Church, especially during the last fifteen years, 
has been thoroughly and penetratingly the influence of 
a simple and pure-minded Gospel Christian. He had a 
standing order in the Bible House for all new religious 



POWER OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 257 

publications, and to the day of his death he loved to 
talk with missionaries and pastors of the evangelical 
church upon the things of the kingdom. His last ser- 
mon was preached at Easter, 1892, when he was carried 
in a chair to the church which he had served for more 
than half a century. There, supported by loving arms, 
he preached a most powerful discourse upon the duty 
of Bible study and of conformity of life thereto in pure 
and spiritual piety and devotion to Christ. 

The public life of this aged priest of the Gregorian 
Armenian Church corresponded with the whole period 
of the existence of the American Board's mission among 
the Armenians. His spiritual life was largely deter- 
mined by the influence of the fathers of that mission, 
and the outcome of his work was essentially on the 
same lines as the work of the mission. It is, then, a 
suggestive token of the great change which God had 
already effected in the Armenian Church that Protes- 
tants and Armenians joined in mourning his loss, and 
that both honored in him the same traits of character : 
a hearty love for the simple gospel and a life conformed 
to the life of Jesus Christ. 

HAVE MISSIONS IN TURKEY BEEN A FAILURE? 

BY A. H. HAIGAZIAN„ 

University of Chicago. 

It is only a short time that I have been in America; 
yet my intercourse with American friends has led me to 
this conclusion, that the people in general do not know 
what the missions have done in Turkey. 

So far as I can judge, much has been said on the 
dark side of the mission work. It seems to me that 
even the missionaries who return home for a short rest, 



258 POWER OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 

finding the people more interested with the funny cus- 
toms of the Old East ; they are tempted to forget to 
tell more about the results of the missions. 

I thoroughly admit, that the need must be pictured 
before the eyes of the people as vividly as possible, and 
for this end the costumes and the beliefs of the natives 
are to be discussed. This must be done ; but on the 
other hand, the results and the fruits of the sincere 
prayers and long toils should not be omitted. The 
former pleases the people but the latter encourages 
them. 

Dear American friends, I assure you that the missions 
in Turkey have not been a failure. Your prayers and 
best wishes for Turkey have been answered by the Great 
Master of the work. 

The mission's first and most important work has 
been in the establishment of many strong and evangel- 
ical churches in Turkey. At this point you must re- 
member that the main work of the missions in Asiatic 
Turkey has been among Armenians. Missionaries do 
not preach to Moslems or Mohammedans in Turkej', as 
it is often supposed. Neither do they preach to heathen. 
Now the Armenians had already accepted Christianity 
in the beginning of the fourth century as a whole na- 
tion, and to this day they have kept Christianity in 
their national church. But the intercourse with the 
Greek and Roman Catholic churches, took out the vital 
element from the church. Now the whole missionary 
effort is spent to reform the Old Armenian Church ; 
and to a great. extent they are successful. I call the 
work of the missions in Turke} r only a reformation, 
nevertheless a great reformation. The attention of the 
people has been directed to the Bible itself. The most 



POWER OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 259 

important and principal doctrines of Christianity have 
been preached to the souls in a more open and simple 
way. Sunday schools, Young Men's and Young Wo- 
men's Christian Associations and Christian Endeavor 
Societies have been formed, which were almost unknown 
before the mission work. From the ignorant women of 
Turkey have come out many Hannahs and Monicas. 
" Jesus, lover of my soul," " My faith looks up to 
Thee," " Nearer, my God, to Thee," and many other 
hymns which are used so much among you, are also the 
favorite hymns of these Armenian Evangelical churches. 
Even the most ignorant woman sings them without 
having a hymn book in her hand. When you lift up 
your voices here in America in Christian prayers and 
songs, be sure that at that moment, four thousand miles 
beyond in Turkey, many voices have been lifted up with 
■the same spirit towards heaven. Yours and theirs as- 
cend together up to the throne of Almight} 7 God. They 
have no such magnificent buildings for their churches 
as you have here. In many churches they have no 
organ or piano ; a poor people. Yet if you should 
see those Protestant churches, their sincerity, their 
piety, and their love for the truth of God, you would 
surely say, " Truly the Gospel ■ is preached to the 
poor." 

The educational work of the missions has been not 
less successful. The colleges and theological semina- 
ries of the missions among those Protestant churches can 
be well compared with the many colleges and the theo- 
logical seminaries of America. And the graduates of 
these institutions are carrying on the work of the mis- 
sions. We have there able professors, able preachers 
and successful revivalists and evangelists. Dr. Daniels, 



260 POWER OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 

the secretary of the American Board, recently in one of 
the Congregational churches of Chicago said : " Our 
missionaries have laid the foundation, but our native 
preachers and professors are building up the rest/' 

The congregations are made ready to hear more 
thoughtful sermons. Don't think that it will be a very 
easy matter to preach in those churches. Criticism of 
sermons is not confined to American and European 
churches. Even the sermons of the missionaries are 
not so welcome as before. They are nowadays anx- 
ious to hear only the thoughts that come out from 
thoroughly educated minds. The cities of Marash, 
Aintab, etc., which are educational centers, are choos- 
ing their pastors from those who are educated in the 
American universities. The ideals of the people are 
going to be higher and higher. The present colleges 
and seminaries are being obliged almost every year 
to change their programs, to fit them to the conditions 
and wants of the people. 

Missions have awakened an interest among the people 
'in the musical department. Vocal music is taught in 
every high school. Haydn, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, 
etc., are familiar names to both educated young men 
and women. The " Hallelujah Chorus " of Handel, and 
many other classic pieces are sung in social meetings. 
During these last years kindergartens have done much 
in the education of the young folks. The kindergar- 
tens of Smyrna, Csesarea, Aintab, Marash and Hadjin 
are very successful. Those children can sing many 
English songs. 

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star, 
How I wonder, what you are " 

is one which I have heard many times. Even non- 



POWER OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 261 

Protestants are much attracted by this kind of educa- 
tion, and I think this is a good opportunity for mis- 
sions. 

The third and last result of the missions which I will 
mention, is the social improvement among the natives. 
The poverty of the people has been a hindrance to this. 
Yet the improvement on this point cannot be denied. 
An educated young man in Armenia wears the dress of 
an American gentleman, with this difference, that, the 
former puts on his fez instead of hat. Especially young 
women of the cities cannot be distinguished by their 
dress from European or American young women. 

These are some direct results of the missions. Besides, 
the missions have done a great deal indirectly. Non- 
Protestant Armenians also have been awakened to their 
duties. The preaching of the gospel is becoming more 
common among them, and I am sure there are hundreds 
of Armenians, who do not call themselves Protestants, 
who are in reality Protestants. If so, then have 
missions been a failure ? Mrs. Scott-Stevenson in her 
book entitled " Our Ride Through Asia Minor," se- 
verely criticises the missions, their aims and their meth- 
ods. If she should criticise only their methods, I 
should agree with her in some degree ; but to criticise 
the sacred aim of preaching the Gospel is non-Christian 
sentiment, and I am sure she must have taken those 
notes under the influences of the wines of Turkey, which 
she seems very much delighted with. 

Let me add one point more. The missionaries suc- 
ceed better among Armenians than among any Chris- 
tian sects in Turkey. And why ? Simply because they 
love the truth. The history of the Armenian church 
proves this. The history of the missions in Turkey 



262 POWER OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 

proves this. Because their motto is progress. For- 
ward to a higher spirituality ; forward to a higher edu- 
cation ; forward to a higher civilization. And no won- 
der that they accept reformation so readily. They be- 
lieve that the Kingdom of God brings with itself all 
that which is necessary for a nation. 

And we cannot help but mention our hearty grati- 
tude to the American Board. Thanks for their love of 
humanity ; thanks for their liberal gifts ; thanks for 
their prayers, and thanks for their missionaries. Yet 
there is much to be done. We need more help. The 
harvest is ready — more reapers ! The points thus far 
mentioned are pledges for a greater success. 

[The following paper was contributed to the " World's 
Congress of Missions," held at Chicago in 1893. The 
" Parliament of Religions " will long be remembered as 
the most remarkable gathering the world has yet seen 
of the defenders of the Ethnic Faiths of the world. 
Representative men from the ends of the earth brought 
to this parliament the best religious thought of their re- 
spective faiths. It was the high water mark of that 
which the best and wisest of men have discovered or 
that has been revealed concerning God, duty and des- 
tiny.] 

MODERN TRIUMPHS OF THE GOSPEL IN THE 
OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 
REV. HENRY H. JESSUP, D. D. 
To recount the triumphs of the Gospel in the Otto- 
man Empire would be to write the history of its moral, 
intellectual and social progress for the past seventy-five 
years. 

When Pliny Fisk and Levi Parsons sailed for Jeru- 



POWER OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 263 

salem in 1818 the Ottoman Empire was virtually a 
" terra incognita." Ruling over thirty-five millions of 
souls in Southeastern Europe, Western Asia and 
Northern Africa, of whom twelve millions were Orien- 
tal Christians, this great empire had not a school ex- 
cepting the Koranic medrisehs for boys in the mosques, 
and its vast populations were in a state of intellectual, 
moral and religious stagnation. These young Ameri- 
cans were instructed to ascertain " what good could be 
done for Jews, Pagans, Mohammedans and Christians 
in Egypt, Syria, Persia, Armenia and other adjacent 
countries." Fisk died in Beirut in 1826, and by his 
grave was planted a little cypress tree. Parsons died 
in Alexandria, and his grave is unknown. They both 
" died without the sight " of fruit from their labors. 

Three-quarters of a century have passed, and to-day 
we are asked, what good has been done to Jews, Pagans, 
Mohammedans and Christians in this great empire ? 

The work to be done in 1820 was formidable and the 
means seemingly contemptible. What could a handful 
of young men and women accomplish, coming from a 
distant land whose very existence was discredited, to 
an empire whose political and religious systems had 
been fossilized for centuries, where schools, books and 
Bibles were unknown ? For these inexperienced youth 
from the land of the Pilgrims, reared in the air of civil 
and religious liberty, trained to hate all despotism, po- 
litical or ecclesiastical, and to love a free press, free 
schools, and absolute freedom of conscience, to attempt 
to change public opinion and renovate society, to re- 
form the Oriental churches and liberalize Islam, seemed 
a forlorn and desperate venture. 

Seventy years have passed. Sultans have risen and 



264 POWER OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 

fallen. Patriarchs and Bishops remain, but Turkey is 
not what it was in 1820, and can never retrograde to 
those days of darkness. That little evergreen tree 
planted by Pliny Fisk's grave in the suburbs of a town 
of eight thousand population has grown to be a stately 
cypress tree in the very center of a city of ninety thou- 
sand people. Overlooking it is a female seminary, a 
large church edifice, a Sunday school hall, a printing 
house, which sends out more than twenty millions of 
pages annually. That little iron door to the east opens 
into a vault containing thirteen thousand electrotype 
plates of various editions of the Arabic Scriptures. 
Within a radius of two miles are four Christian col- 
leges, seven female seminaries, sixty boys' day schools, 
thirty-one girls' schools, seventeen printing presses, and 
four large hospitals. The boys' and girls' schools be- 
long to the Protestants, Catholics, Greeks, Muslims and 
Jews, and sixteen thousand children are under instruc- 
tion. Scores of Muslim girls are as familiar with the 
Old Testament prophecies with regard to Christ as are 
our Sunday school children at home. Bibles, hymn 
books and Christian literature, as well as scientific, his- 
torical and educational works, are scattered over the 
city and throughout the land. Young Syrian women, 
formerly shut up in ignorance and illiteracy, now enjoy 
the instruction of home libraries and useful periodicals, 
and even carry on discussions in the public press and 
write books of decided merit 

THE OUTCOME. 

I. The Gospel has triumphed in securing in a great 
measure to the people of Turke}'' that most precious 
treasure, religious liberty and freedom of conscience. 



POWER OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 265 

In 1820, every Ottoman subject had a right to re- 
main in his own sect and to think as his fathers thought 
before him. Muslim could remain Muslim, Greek re- 
main Greek, Armenian Armenian, and Maronite Maron- 
ite. Each sect was a walled enclosure with gates 
bolted and barred, and the only possible egress from 
any was into the fold of Islam. 

The appearance of an open Bible, the preaching of 
the Gospel, free schools and open discussion of religious 
questions threw all things into confusion. Not a few 
received the Gospel and claimed the right to think for 
themselves. . . . Anathemas, the major excommu- 
nication, stripes and imprisonment, intimidated some, 
but drove multitudes out of the Oriental Churches, and 
as the imperial laws regarded every man outside the 
traditional sects as an outlaw, exile, death, or recanta- 
tion seemed their only possible fate. 

But these storms of persecution developed some of 
the noblest types of Christian character. True heroic 
spirits, like Asaad esh Shidiak in Lebanon, preferred 
death to submission to the doctrines of a priestly hier- 
archy. The Maronite monastery of Connobin, near the 
Cedars of Lebanon, where he was walled up in a cell 
under the overhanging cliff and starved to death, has 
become memorable in Syria as the scene of the first 
martyrdom for the evangelical faith in Turkey in mod- 
ern times. 

Scourging, imprisonment and exile have been the lot 
of multitudes who have stood steadfast amid their suf- 
ferings. Mr. Butrus Bistany, a young Maronite scholar, 
who found the truth as Luther found it, in a monastery, 
fled for his life to Beirut, and remained concealed for 
two years in the American Mission, fearing death at 



266 POWEIl OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 

the hands of the spies of the Patriarch. But he was 
spared to be a pillar in the Protestant Church, a learned 
Arabic author, the assistant of Eli Smith in Bible trans- 
lation, and the biographer of Asaad esh Shidiak. . . 

Kamil Abdul Messiah, a youthful Syrian convert to 
Christianity from Islam, who died in Bussorah in June, 
1892, seemed baptized by the Holy Spirit and divinely 
instructed in the Word of God. He grasped the vital 
truths of the Gospel as by a Heavenly instinct. He 
was a youth of pure life and lips, of faith and pra} T er, 
of courage and zeal, and he was mighty in the Scrip- 
tures. In Southern Arabia he preached in the streets 
of towns, in Arab camps, on the deck of coasting ships, 
and even in mosques. His journals read like chapters 
from the Acts. His early death was a loss to the Arab 
race, but his memory is fragrant with the aroma of a 
pure and godly life and example. 

Time would fail us to recount the history of the able 
writers, the liberal Christian merchants, the faithful 
pastors and teachers, the godly physicians, the self- 
denying poor, the patient, loving, and exemplary 
women, who have been Christ's witnesses during these 
years of toil and prayer in Syria. 

In November, 1847, an Imperial decree recognized, 
native Protestants as an independent community with 
a civil head. 

In 1850 the Sultan gave a firman granting to Protes- 
tants all the privileges given to other Christian commu- 
nities, and in 1853 another, declaring Christians before 
the law equal in all respects to Mohammedans, and the 
death penalty for apostasy from Islam was abolished. 
This Magna Charta of Protestant rights is the charter 
of liberty of conscience to all men in Turkey. 



POWER OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 267 

The Ottoman Government became to a great extent 
tolerant, and to -clay, as compared with its Northern 
Muscovite neighbor, it is a model of toleration. There 
is no open legal persecution for conscience's sake. 

The Bible in its various languages is distributed 
throughout the Empire, with the imperial permit 
printed on the title page. There is not yet liberty to 
print controversial books touching the religion of Islam, 
although Islamic works attacking Christianity are dis- 
tributed openly, with official approbation. The censor- 
ship of the press is rigid, but the existing Christian 
literature is rarely interfered with. 

The Sheikh ul Islam in Constantinople recently re- 
plied officially to a European convert to Islam who 
asked his aid in entering the Mohammedan religion, 
that " religion is a matter between man and God, and 
that no sheikh or priest or mediator is needed in man's 
approach to his Maker." This is one of the cardinal 
principles of Christianity, — the difference consisting in 
this : — that while the Sheikh ul Islam probably meant 
to exclude even the mediation of Christ, the Gospel 
claims Christ as the only Mediator. 

It is also true that if any Christian wishes to become 
a Mohammedan he must go before the Kadi, who sum- 
mons the Christian's religions minister to labor with 
him and examine his case before he is admitted to Is- 
lam. 

That so much of religious liberty exists is cause for 
profound gratitude. 

II. The social triumphs of Gospel work in Turkey 
appear in the transformation of the family and the ele- 
vation of woman. 

The Mohammedan practice of the veiling and seclu- 



268 POWER OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 

sion of woman and her exclusion from all social dignity 
and responsibilities rested like a blight on womankind 
among all the sects of the Empire. Even among the 
women of the non- Muslim sects the veil became a 
necessary shield from insult. 

An exploration of the Empire in 1829 failed to dis- 
cover a single school for girls. American women were 
the first to break the spell, and after long and patient 
efforts the first school building for the instruction of 
girls in the Ottoman Empire was erected in Beirut, in 
1834, at the expense of Mrs. Tod, an American lady in 
Alexandria, and the teacher was Mrs. Sarah L. H. 
Smith. . . . 

In 1877, the first Muslim school for girls was opened 
in Beirut. They now have three girls' schools in the 
city, with five hundred pupils. Thus far their girls' 
schools are confined to the great cities, and they have 
shown commendable zeal in erecting neat and com- 
modious buildings. 

In Syria and Palestine there are now nine thousand 
and eighty -one girls under Protestant instruction, and 
there are thousands in the Greek and Papal schools. 
The effects of female education prosecuted for so manjr 
years has been a palpable change in the status and 
dignity of woman. The light and comfort, the moral 
and intellectual elevation which have resulted are plain 
even to the casual observer. The mother is becoming 
the primary instructor of the children at home, and by 
precept and example their moral and religious guide. 

The indifference of the Oriental Christians and the 
opposition of the Mohammedans to female education 
has been largely overcome. A Mohammedan Turkish 
lady in Constantinople, Fatimeh Alia Khanum, daugh- 



POWER OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 269 

ter of Joudet Pasha, has just published a novelette in 
Turkish and Arabic to show the superiority of the 
home life of Turkish Muslim women to that of 
European Christian women. A Protestant young lady 
of Northern Syria has taken a prize of $50 for the best 
original Arabic story illustrating the benefits of female 
education. Another Protestant young woman has 
recently published an Arabic book on " Society and 
Social Customs," and, on the eve of her departure for 
the Columbian Exposition, delivered a public lecture on 
the duty of Ottoman subjects to support their own do- 
mestic manufacturers. It was largely attended by 
Muslim sheikhs, Turkish effendis and the public gener- 
ally, and at the close a young Jewess, a fellow-graduate 
with her from the American Female Seminary, arose 
and made an impromptu address in support of the 
speaker's views. 

Too much cannot be said in admiration of the self- 
denying and successful labors of the American, Eng- 
lish, Scotch and German women who have toiled pa- 
tiently through long years, and many of whom have 
sacrificed their lives to the elevation of their sisters in 
this great Empire. Educated and cultivated wives, 
mothers, sisters and daughters, all over the land, ris^ 
up and call them blessed. These happy Oriental 
homes, neat and well ordered, their high character 
their exemplary conduct, their intelligence and interest 
in the proper training of their own children and the 
best welfare of society, are among the noblest fruits ot 
a revived Christianity in the East. 

What is wanted to complete the symmetry of this 
picture of the intellectual progress of Oriental women 
is that a deputation of Mohammedan ladies should at* 



270 POWER OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 

tend the .great World's Congress of Women from all 
the nations, and explain to their sisters from Christian 
and pagan Empires wherein consists the excellency and 
glory of the veiling and seclusion of Mohammedan 
women in harems and zenanas, and the permission to 
their men to have four legal wives and as many concu- 
bines as their right hands may acquire by purchase or 
capture. They should have the opportunity to explain 
the superiority of this system to that of Christianity, 
under which woman is allowed the most complete 
liberty of action, is trusted and honored, and given 
the highest place in the great organized enterprises of 
benevolence, charity, religion and social reform, and in 
the relief of human suffering at home and abroad. 

III. To Protestant Missions is due the modern in- 
tellectual and educational awakening of the whole Em- 
pire. The American schools had been in operation 
forty years before the Turkish government officially pro- 
mulgated (in 1869), school laws, and instituted a 
scheme of governmental education. 

In 1864 there were twelve thousand five hundred 
elementary Mosque schools for reading the Koran, in 
which there were said to be half a million of students. 
In 1890, according to the recently published Ottoman 
reports, there were in the Empire forty-one thousand 
six hundred and fifty-nine schools of all kinds, of 
which three thousand are probably Christian and Jew- 
ish. As there are thirt} r -five thousand five hundred 
and ninety-eight mosques in the Empire, and each 
mosque is supposed to have its " medriseh " or school, 
there would appear to be about four thousand secular 
government schools not connected with the mosques, 
independent of ecclesiastical control by mollahs and 



POWER OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 273 

sheikhs, and belonging to the imperial graded system 
of public instruction ; yet many of the mosque schools 
have now been absorbed into the government system, 
so that there may be twenty thousand of these so-called 

secular government schools 

There are now in the Empire eighty hundred and 
ninety-two Protestant schools, with forty-three thou- 
sand and twenty-seven pupils. 



Schools. 
In Syria and Pales- 
tine. .328 

In Egypt, 100 

In Asia Minor, etc. . . 464 







Total 


Boys. 


Girls. 


Pupils. 


9,756 


9,081 


18,837 


3,271 


3,029 


6,300 


10,000 


7,890 


17,890 



Total. ..... ,892 23,027 20,000 43,027 

Of these pupils twenty thousand are girls, a fact 
most potent and eloquent with regard to the future of 
these interesting peoples. 

There are thirty-one colleges, seminaries and board- 
ing-schools for girls, of which eleven are taught by 
English and twenty by American Jadies. In some of 
these schools young women are carried to the higher 
branches of science. In all of them the Bible is 
taught as a daily text book. 

There are six American colleges for young men, the 
most of them well equipped and manned, taking the 
lead in academic and scientific training. The medical 
college in Beirut has pupils from nearly all parts of the 
Empire. 

The standard of instruction is kept as high as the 
circumstances of the different provinces will admit, 
16 



274 POWER OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 

and the education given is thoroughly Biblical and 
Christian. And there are no more upright, intelligent, 
useful, loyal and progressive subjects of the Sultan to- 
day than the graduates of these colleges. 



IV. The fourth evidence of the Gospel's triumph is 
the translation of the Bible into all the languages of 
the Empire, and the publication of a vast mass of re- 
ligious, educational, historical, and scientific books. 
The Bible is now printed in eleven languages and 
made available to all the people of the Empire. About 
fifteen hundred different books have been published in 
these various languages, of which nearly seven hundred 
are from the Arabic press in Beirut. The Arabic 
Bible is sent to the whole Arabic reading Mohamme- 
dan world. The literary, scientific, historical and re- 
ligious books also have a wide circulation. 

Seventy years ago there were neither books nor 
readers. Now the hundreds of thousands of readers 
can find books in their own tongue, and to suit every 
taste. There are children's illustrated books for the 
school and the fireside, stories and histories for the 
young, solid historical, theological, and instructive 
works for the old, and scientific books and periodicals 
for students. Bunyan, D'Aubigm', Edwards, Alex- 
ander, Moody, and Spurgeon are speaking to the 
Orientals. Richard Newton instincts and delights the 
children. Eli Smith, Van Dyck, and Post, Meshaka 
and Bistany, Nofel and Wortabet, instruct the 
scholarly and educated, while mathematics, astrononry, 
philosophy, chemistry, and medicine, geology and 
meteorology carry students on to the higher depart- 



POWER OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 275 

ments of learning. Tracts and Sunday school lesson 
books abound, and periodical literature supplies the 
present daily wants of society. 

The American Arabic Press, founded in Malta in 
1822, and in Beirut in 1834, set in motion the forces 
which have now filled all the great cities of the Empire 
with presses and newspapers, and awakened the people 
to a new intellectual life. The Beirut Press alone has 
printed five hundred millions of pages in Arabic. 

The Bible and the Koran are now the two religious 
books of the Empire. The Koran is in one language 
for one sect, and cannot be translated, and any copy of 
the Koran found in the possession of a native Christian 
or a European traveler is confiscated. The Bible is in 
eleven languages and is freely offered for sale to all. 
Sixty thousand copies of the Scriptures are sold an- 
nually in the Turkish Empire. 

THE OUTLOOK. 

1. Russia is straining every nerve to destroy Protes- 
tant schools as endangering the political solidarity of 
the Greek Church and thus hostile to her prestige and 
future influence in Turkey. 

2. Republican France, having exiled the Jesuits as 
intolerable at home, finds them pliant tools of her 
political schemes abroad and subsidizes them heavily 
with money and diplomatic support in thwarting Prot- 
estant missions. 

3. The civil policy of the Turkish Government is 
" Turkey for the Turks." This means virtually filling 
all the offices of the Empire with Mohammedans, thus 
gradually closing every avenue of public official em- 
ployment and promotion to the six millions of the Chris- 



276 POWER OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 

tian population, who are far in advance of the Muslims 
in education and intelligence. 

We do not here dispute the right or the political 
sagacity of this new regime. But its natural result is 
seen in the emigration of thousands of the most ener- 
getic and enlightened young men to foreign lands. 
Protestant schools are endangered by losing their 
trained teachers, and the churches by losing their best 
members and the material for their future pastors, and 
the cause of self-support is gravely imperilled. But 
though thus threatened Protestantism is secured. 

1. By the wide distribution of the Scriptures. The 
hundreds of thousands of Bibles in the hands of the 
people will make the extinction of Protestantism impos- 
sible unless the people themselves are exterminated. 

2. By the wide diffusion of education and the found- 
ing of so many Protestant colleges and seminaries which 
have come to Turkey to stay. 

3. By the deep-rooted faitli and personal convictions 
of tens of thousands who believe in the right of in- 
dividual judgment in religion and in the supremacy of 
conscience enlightened by the Word of God. Fifty 
thousand Protestants in the Empire can be depended 
upon to hold their own, even were all foreign mission- 
aries to be withdrawn. 

4. By the vast body of Christian literature and the 
power of the journalistic press, which are inconsistent 
with a recoil into the domain of priestlj 7 tyranny and 
the stilling of the human conscience. 

Protestantism as a principle is steadily growing in 
every sect in the Empire. The Ark of God is safe in 
this land. Let us work on in patience and good cheer, 
With gratitude and unquestioning faith. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE KURDS AND ARMENIANS. 

Turkish Armenia, the northwestern division of 
Kurdestan, is a great plateau of nearly sixty thousand 
square miles, bounded on the north by the Russian 
frontier, by Persia on the east, the plains of Mesopota- 
mia on the west, and Asia Minor on the south. There 
are in all, at the present time, about four million Ar- 
menians on the globe, of whom little more than half are 
in Turkey, and the rest in Russia, Persia, other Asiatic 
countries, Europe and America. In Armenia — the 
name and geographical existence of which are not 
recognized in Turkey — there are probably six hundred 
thousand native Armenians, or one-fourth of the whole 
number that are scattered throughout the Porte's 
dominions. The climate is temperate and bracing. 
Facilities for travel and transportation are exceedingly 
meagre, and all the methods employed by the natives 
are unusually primitive. " Valis," or municipal gover- 
nors, are appointed by the government at Constanti- 
nople to administer the laws, and none but Moslems 
hold official positions. 

Among the population are found many races, includ- 
ing Turks, Kurds, Russians, Circassians, and Jews, be- 
sides native Armenians. Fully one-half the people are 
Mohammedan. The Kurds lead a pastoral and preda- 
tory life, dwelling in mountain villages over the entire 
region. Their number is uncertain, but it is estimated 

(277) 



278 THE KURDS AND ARMENIANS. 

that in the villages 'of Erzeroum, Van and Bitlis there 
are not less than six hundred thousand. Some of these 
tribes are migratory, like the Bedouins of Syria. Al- 
most all are warlike, and many have degenerated into 
lawless brigands. For centuries they have made serfs 
of the Christians, trampling them under foot at every 
opportunity, and extending to them no toleration what- 
soever. These rude mountaineers delight in bloodshed 
and pillage, and it was their oppression of the Armenia:; 
villagers which precipitated the distress in Sassoun. 
Moush, Bitlis, and the surrounding country. The 
Kurdish costumes are picturesque, and nearly all the 
tribesmen are magnificent horsemen. The government 
at Constantinople organized them as a military force, 
and bestowed the name " Hamidieh " on their cavalry 
regiments, but their spirit, like that of the wild Arab, 
the Cossack, or the North American Indian, is one that 
scarcely brooks the restraints of military discipline. 
They were always formidably armed, and weapons in 
the hands of such a war-loving race were an incentive 
to disturbance and outrage. They spread universal 
terror among the Armenians by their cruelty and 
frightful excesses for many centuries, but it was re- 
served for our own time to witness the exhibition of 
barbarism on their part that filled Europe and America 
with horror. 

Kurdestan, which is a name very common in the 
East, is no more than a geographical appellation for 
the entire country inhabited by the Kurds. Its area is 
estimated at more than fifty thousand square miles. 
This region has no political boundaries, but includes 
both Persian and Turkish territoiy. It may be said to 
extend from Turkish Armenia, on the north, to the 



THE KURDS AND ARMENIANS. 279 

plains of the middle Tigris, and the Luristan moun- 
tains, on the south. It contains many other people be- 
sides Kurds, such as Turks, Nestorians, Chaldeans, 
Persians and Armenians. 

The origin and ancestry of the Kurds, like that of 
most Eastern nations, is still unsettled among ethnolo- 
gists. They stand among the Asiatic races, like the 
Basques and Lapps in Europe, wrapt in obscurity. 
They are a people without a literature, and almost with- 
out a history. They number about two millions, six 
hundred thousand of whom are under Persia, the rest 
being under Turkey. They are divided into many in- 
dependent tribes ; the tribal feeling is very strong, a 
very fortunate thing for Turkey and Persia, for could 
the Kurds be firmly united these Empires might often 
suffer much at their hands. 

Some of them are nomadic, not, however, wandering 
indefinitely, for they have well defined circuits which 
they make annually. 

But some of them are agricultural people, who live 
in villages, tilling ground on the plains and hillsides. 
It is amusing to notice them on their way to their 
work, dragging along their sluggish limbs, as though 
they might drop asleep at any moment. They will 
waste two hours before they even start to work. After 
an hour of pretended labor, in which they have really 
accomplished nothing, they will have to sit down and 
smoke awhile. But look at the Kurd as he rides his 
Arabian steed, gun on shoulder, sword at side and 
spear in hand — a veritable angel of death. His dark 
eyes and gloomy countenance are fearful to look upon. 
These warriors sleep most of the day, and at sunset 
start on their robbing expeditions. They descend to 



280 THE KUIIDS AND ARMENIANS. 

the numerous villages in the valleys and drive awaj 
the cattle and flocks, no one daring to oppose them, as 
their very name strikes terror to the hearts of the peo- 
ple. Robbing is their business, and they believe that 
God created them for this purpose only. 

One who has conversed with many of them, asked 
them why they steal. They answered that every man 
has some occupation ; one is a judge, one a merchant, 
one a farmer, and "we are robbers." They make their 
living in this way. " Why don't you work ? " , " We 
do not know how to work." " Why do you kill 
people ? " " When we meet- a man that we wish to rob, 
if we find him stronger than ourselves, we have to kill 
him in order to rob him." " But you are liable to be 
killed some day." " We must die at some time," they 
answer, " what is the difference between dying now and 
a few days hence ? " 

The Kurds are profoundly ignorant and stupid, with 
neither books nor schools. Of the whole race not one 
in ten thousand can read. 

The most of the summer they live in tents 
in the cool places on the mountain slopes and val- 
leys. Their winter houses are built underground, 
most of them having a single room with one or two 
small holes at the top for light. This serves for a bed- 
room, parlor, kitchen and stable. In the daytime they 
are all away ; towards sunset they come in, one by one, 
at least a score of men, women and children ; but 
already the hens have found their resting place ; sheep 
oxen and horses each in their corner. After it is quite 
dark, coarse, stale bread and sour milk are brought out 
for supper. Two spoons and one big dish are sufficient 
for all; each in his turn tries the spoon. Of course 



THE KURDS AND ARMENIANS. 281 

this is always done in the dark, as they have no lights. 
Now it is bedtime and one after another finds his place 
under the same quilt without a pillow or bed. In a few 
minutes all are fast asleep, and soon the heavy breath- 
ing and snoring of men and cattle is mingled, and the 
effect is anything but a sweet sound. The temperature 
of the room is sometimes as high as a hundred, and 
swarms of fleas (one of which would be enough to dis- 
turb the rest of an entire American family) attack the 
wild Kurd, but he stirs not until morning, the fleas 
being exhausted sooner than the men. 

Their women wear an exceedingly picturesque cos- 
tume. They have dark complexions, with e} r es and 
hair intensely black. Their beauty is not of a refined 
type, but by a mass of paint is made sufficiently at- 
tractive for their easily pleased husbands. Almost all 
the work, both in and out of doors, is done by them. 
Early in the morning, when they are through their 
home work, they hasten to the field to attend the flocks, 
or gather fuel for use in winter. In the evening they 
come in with large burdens on their backs, which ap- 
pear to be quite enough for two clonkej r s to carry. So 
industrious are they, that they frequently spin on their 
way to and from work, singing all the while, apparently 
as happy as if all the world were theirs. This industry 
the men do not appreciate, or reward. They will not 
hesitate, when it is raining, to drag the women from the 
tent, in order to make room for a favorite steed. 

This country of Kurdestan is filled with wonderful 
ruins. On its western border is an inscription upon 
the face of a cliff which was written by Nebuchad- 
nezzar when he came to conquer this country. 

In the city of Farkin, only five miles from Kilise, 



282 THE KURDS AND ARMENIANS. 

there are most magnificent ruins of churches, castles 
and towers. The columns still standing in one of these 
ruined churches are about twelve feet high and over 
two feet in diameter and above the arches thus sup- 
ported is another corresponding series. 

This church is closely surrounded with a great many 
graves — thousands of them — so that the church is often 
spoken of as "the Church of Martyrs." 

In all probabilit}^ these are some of the ruins with 
which Tamerlane filled the land at the beginning of the 
Fifteenth centuiy, and these are the remains of the 
splendid Christian civilization which he so ruthlessly 
destroyed, and the Kurdish-Armenians are the descend- 
ants of the few Armenians who accepted of Islam to 
save themselves and their families from utter destruc- 
tion. Compulsory conversion to Islam is still the order 
of the day in all the desolated districts of Turkish- 
Armenia. 

ARMENIA IN THE MOUNTAINS. 

The following tour through the heart of Armenia 
and part of Kurdestan is prepared that the reader may 
follow more easily the course of the whirlwind of death 
and desolation that was soon to sweep down from the 
upper valleys of Ararat far out upon the plains until it 
met the cyclone from the West and enveloped the 
whole land in misery, destitution and despair, filled all 
the air of heaven with the shrieks and agonies of the 
tortured and the dying martyrs for the faith once de- 
livered to the saints. 

We enter the valle} r at Kharput or Harpoot, which 
is situated in the valley of the Murad, the eastern 
branch of the Euphrates river. Coming into the 



THE KURDS AND ARMENIANS. 283 

valley from the west, we find ourselves in the midst 
of a well-cultivated district, and as we advance the 
villages become numerous. The city is situated upon 
rising ground, which is bounded by a long line of 
steep, flat-topped heights. The approach from the 
south presents a most striking appearance as we ascend 
by a steep, winding path the narrow ravine reaching up 
to the plateau above, where at the base of the ruined 
walls of a medieval castle, nestle the buildings of a 
part of the Armenian quarter — the rest of the city 
spreading out to the verge of the hill. 

From this height, a' thousand feet above the lower 
ground, there is a superb prospect over the rich plain 
studded with villages and bounded on the south by the 
Taurus range, which contains the sources of the Tigris 
and separates this country from the lowlands of Meso- 
potamia. To the east and west lie an expanse of undu- 
lating ground, stretching on the one hand towards the 
Murad, into which this district drains, on the other in 
the direction of the Euphrates. The length of this 
plain to the foot of the Taurus is about fifteen miles, 
while the Murad is about the same distance eastward. 
This plain is a most beautiful sight in the spring time, 
when the whole is one vast carpet of green. Ac- 
cording to the natives, the number of the villages it 
contains is three hundred and sixty-five, and they 
also claim this place was the site of Eden — they even 
point out the place where Adam first saw the light. 
The houses of the missionaries of the American Board 
and the college buildings, all of which were laid in 
ruins, were built not far from the edge of the high 
precipitous cliff and commanded this beautiful pros- 
pect. The elevation of Kharput, or Harpoot, is about 




J E B E 




aroaW--^ S Jumalee 



TUEKEY IN ASIA. 



286 THE KURDS AND ARMENIANS. 

four thousand five hundred feet above sea level. From 
its strategic position it has been occupied by a city 
from very early times. It is now the leading city in 
the province and has about five thousand houses — five 
hundred Armenian, the rest Turkish, while the vil- 
lages in the plains are occupied almost entirely by the 
Armenians. These villages were almost swept off the 
earth during the Harpoot massacres. The Armenian 
College was the finest in Eastern Turkey and the 
value of mission property destroyed was upwards of 
$80,000. 

A day's journey up the eastern branch of the Eu- 
phrates brings us to the Castle-rock of Palu. This rock 
is nine hundred feet above the river and on its summit 
is the town of about one thousand five hundred houses. 
Palu has the honor of being the dwelling place of St. 
Mesrob, the saint who invented the' Armenian alphabet 
about 406 A. D., and translated the Scriptures into 
that tongue. His name is still in great repute in his 
native country. 

If we should leave the valley of the Euphrates to 
the northward, five hours of steep climbing would 
bring us to the top of the mountain ridge that over- 
looks the great plain of Moush, which stretches forty 
miles away to the eastward towards Lake Van. From 
the top of this ridge to the Monastery of St. John the 
Baptist the road is one of the most beautiful in all Ar- 
menia, as it follows a terrace path along the mountain 
side through low forests, commanding a succession of 
beautiful views into the valley of the Euphrates. On 
rounding a shoulder of the mountain we have the first 
sight of the towers of the monastery, which occupies a 
small table of ground with veiy steep slopes both above 



THE KURDS AND ARMENIANS. 287 

and below it, at an elevation of six thousand feet above 
the sea and about two thousand above the plain. 

This Monastery was founded b}>- St. Gregory the Il- 
luminator, the Apostle of the Armenians, having in 
residence before the massacres twenty Monks and one 
hundred lay brethren under the care of the Superior. 
Some of these priests were highly educated, speaking 
French fluently beside Armenian and Turkish. But all 
these monasteries were utterly destroyed by the Kurds 
in the late savage raids. 

The town of Moush is nearly a day's ride up the 
Euphrates valley from the point where the road down 
the mountains from the Monastery reaches the river. 
The plain is one of great beauty — quite productive, 
growing fine harvests of wheat. Fine gardens are 
found about the villages which nestle in the ravines 
which put up into the Taurus mountains on the south 
side of the plain. At the head of one of these narrow 
valleys is the city of Moush of three thousand houses, 
about one-fourth of them belonging to Armenians. The 
hillsides are devoted to gardens and vineyards which 
flourish here, though the elevation is four thousand 
feet above the sea. This plain was swept with the 
wind of desolation at the time of the Sassoun massa- 
cre. 

As we continue our journey up the valley we rapidly 
rise above the plain into the mountains which separate 
the valley of Moush from Lake Van. 

A few hours' ride from Nurshin, the last Armenian 
village, takes us through a mountain pass about six 
thousand feet high, into the territory of the Kurds — 
Kurdestan. 

We take this way that we may more readily under- 



288 THE KURDS AND ARMENIANS. 

stand bow the Kurds and the Turks could make suck 
awful havoc of the Armenians when they were "let 
loose " upon them. 

When the head of this pass is reached, we are at a 
point of some geographical interest. It is one of Na- 
ture's great crossroads. The waters from this moun- 
tain plateau, flow north and westward down the valley 
of Moush into the Euphrates, another valley opens 
eastward and downwards into Lake Van, and another 
southwards into the Tigris. It is somewhat similar to 
the water shed in the Rocky Mountains above Lead- 
ville, Col., where, from the same marshy plateau, the 
waters flow southward, forming the Arkansas, and 
so through the Royal Gorge, into the plains of Colo- 
rado eastward, and also westward and southward into 
the Grand River, through a most magnificent and beau- 
tiful Canon, past Glenwood Springs and so into the 
Colorado River and the Gulf of California. 

Let us turn southward and make an excursion to 
Bitlis before resuming the journey to Van. At various 
points in this high mountain valley are massively built 
stone Khans which are intended as refuges for trav- 
elers at unfavorable seasons of the year. They make 
considerable pretensions to architectural beauty, hav- 
ing portals and arched recesses and are of grelit an- 
tiquity. Three hours' hard riding down a bare stony 
valley would bring us to the entrance of Bitlis. 

When approached from this side Bitlis comes upon 
us as a surprise, for until you are within it, there is 
nothing but a few trees to suggest that an inhabited 
place is near. It lies completely below the level of the 
upper valley which here suddenly makes a sheer de- 
scent so that the river which has now been swelled into 



THE KURDS AND ARMENIANS. 291 

a fair sized torrent, breaks into rapids and cataracts in 
its passage through the town. In the middle of the 
place it is joined by another stream from the moun- 
tains towards the northwest: and the buildings climb 
up the hillsides at the meeting of these valleys, rising 
one above another with a striking effect. Thus the 
Tigris breaks its way through deep chasms below, and 
for several days' journey descends with great rapidity 
to the lower country. We will be struck with the 
massiveness of the stone built houses with large 
courts and gardens and abundance of trees surrounded 
with strong walls, the coping stones of which are 
constructed so as to rise to a sharp angle at the top. 

In the middle of the town between the two streams 
rises the castle, occupying a platform of rock, the sides 
of which fall away precipitously and like all the cliffs 
around have vertical cleavings. The space which it 
covers is large, and it forms a very conspicuous object 
with its square and circular towers following the broken 
surface of the ground. There is a dull tone however, 
about the town, because of the brown sandstone which is 
used in its construction, being of the same hue as the 
bare mountains about it. 

Remember that now we are on the southern slope of 
the mountains facing Arabia, and the climate is milder 
than in the Valley of Moush. The elevation is four 
thousand seven hundred feet and the thermometer 
rarely falls below zero in winter. 

At Bitlis is a missionary station in charge of Rev. 
Mr. Knapp. The Kurdish mountains rise about the cit}- 
in bare, cold grandeur. These summits are the conclu- 
sion of the Taurus Chain. They are the Niphates (if 
antiquity, on the highest peak of which Milton makes 
17 



292 THE KURDS AND ARMENIANS. 

his Satan to alight. [Par. Lost III. 741, « Nor stayed, 
till on Niphates' top he lights."] 

The Castle is said to have been built by Alexander 
the Great. Bitlis was the site of an ancient Armenian 
city and was strongly fortified in the days of the Sara- 
cens. It recently contained thirty thousand inhabit- 
ants, ten thousand being Armenians. This city was 
the scene of a terrible slaughter and being deter- 
mined that the Armenians who were left should perish 
by starvation, the Porte placed Mr. Knapp under arrest 
for treason and ordered him taken to Constantinople 
for trial before United States Minister Terrell. 

Returning up to the head waters of the Tigris we 
next see a level plain extending eastward, hemmed in 
on either side by lofty mountains. Here in August are 
wheatfields extending up the hillsides to quite an eleva- 
tion, showing what the harvests of that region might 
become under safe and careful husbandry. 

Five hours' journey from Bitlis brings us to the 
opening of the valley eastward, and as mountain ranges 
go sweeping around to the north and to the south, 
suddenly Lake Van bursts upon our astonished vis- 
ion in all its beauty and grandeur. Fed by the snow 
upon the mountains, but with no visible outlet, Lake 
Van is about twice the size of Lake Geneva, as it lies 
in a hollow of these highlands five thousand feet above 
the tide. Its extreme length is ninety miles, its breadth 
where widest is thirty miles. This mountain lake is 
only five hundred feet lower than the highest sources 
of the Tigris. On the northwestern shore of the lake 
are the remarkable ruins of the very ancient Armenian 
city of Akhlat, on the North Mount Sipan, an extinct 
volcano with most imposing form and lofty summit. 



THE KURDS AND ARMENIANS. 293 

while on the southeastern shore is the Castle rock of 
Van, which, without exaggeration may be spoken of as 
one of the wonders of the world from its extraordinary 
formation, its rock-hewn chambers and its cuneiform 
inscriptions. 

Coming down to the lake on its western shore and 
skirting it northwards, the little valleys are found full 
of copious springs surrounded by willows and popl.irs 
and an abundance of most luxuriant grass. Orchards 
filled with walnut, plum and apricot trees delight the 
eyes, and the apricots also the palate, being of excellent 
flavor. The ruins of Akhlat may be said to consist of 
three parts, the gardens on the upper, the ruined city 
on the second level and the castle one half mile distant 
on the lake shore. In the steep sandstone cliffs which 
wall in the ruined city, are numerous caves and also 
many artificial chambers, some of which were inhabited 
as late as 1880 as many doubtless now are in all parts of 
the mountains by the destitute Armenians. The most 
of the ruins here are of a Saracenic style of architec- 
ture. The castle is a large rectangular fortress measur- 
ing six hundred yards from the sea to the crest of the 
hill and three hundred yards across, having two gates 
which stand opposite to one another in the middle of the 
eastern and the western wall. Two ancient mosques, 
some fruit trees and ten inhabited cottages are the in- 
ventory of its contents. We must cut short the trip 
up Mount Sipan which is fourteen thousand feet high, 
for the sail in a very cumbrous craft across the lake to 
the city of Van. 

It takes about four hours' sailing to reach the landing 
place which is about a mile from the city proper. Im- 
mediately from the shore rises a curious mass of rocks 



294 THE KURDS AND ARMENIANS. 

commanding a most beautiful view. The slopes of the 
sides are protected by a succession of irregular walls, 
whose long outline is diversfied by towers and other 
fortifications, and a minaret. 

This rock is three hundred feet high and runs due 
east from the lake about two-thirds of a mile. At 
either end it rises by a gradual ascent and on its sum- 
mit are two forts and a central castle. The city which 
is an irregular oblong lies entirely beneath this rock to 
the south, and is enclosed by lines of Turkish walls 
with battlements. The famous inscriptions are found 
for the greater part on this side of the rock, the most 
important one occupying an inaccessible position half- 
way up the face of the cliff. 

This inscription is trilingual being written in three 
parallel columns and is mnch later in date than some 
of the others that are found there. It commemorates 
the exploits of Xerxes the son of Darius, and is very 
nearly word for word the same as those of that king at 
Hamadan and Persepolis. 

When it was copied, a telescope was required to read 
it. 

Here we see the Turks in large turbans and flowing 
robes, wild looking Kurds in sheepskin jackets, Per- 
sians in tall felt hats, and the Armenians in their more 
moderate dress. 

There is a Christian assistant-governor here. He is 
supposed to have much power, but in reality has very 
little, being not much more than a convenient agent to 
the Governor. But his position lias this advantage 
that he is only removable by the central Government 
at Constantinople, and not at the will of the Pashn for 
the time being. The assistant-governor is an Arme- 



THE KURDS AND ARMENIANS. 295 

nian and speaks both French arid Italian well. The city 
contains about thirty thousand population of whom 
three -fourths are Armenians. On account of the near- 
ness of the Persian frontier which is only sixteen hours 
off (about fifty miles) there is kept in the city a garri- 
son of four hundred soldiers. 

The view from the summit is most enchanting for on 
the one side lies the expanse of the blue sparkling lake 
with its circuit of mountains — not unlike Great Salt 
Lake with the Wasatch Mountains to the east and the 
beautiful plain stretching to the north and the south, 
and the Mountains away to the west. The fortifica- 
tions at the shore end of the rock are of most massive 
stones, and are attributed to Semiramis, as in old Ar- 
menian books Van was called Shemiramagard or The 
City of Semiramis who made of it her summer capital. 

The story of her love for the King of Armenia may 
be familiar. She had heard of the remarkable personal 
beauty and wisdom of Ara the King and sent Ambassa- 
dors offering him her hand and crown and love, and 
upon his spurning the offer and the dishonorable pro- 
posals attending it, she. declared war against him giving 
orders that the King should not be slain. She was 
greatly distressed when she heard he had fallen in bat- 
tle and before she left for Nineveh she had six hundred 
architects and twelve thousand workmen employed in 
erecting this new city for her summer residence. 

The gardens of Van which stretch for several miles 
to the south and southeast were her glory and pride. 
Copious rivulets and streams with careful irrigation 
have made these gardens famous throughout the East. 

Van was the only city which successfully resisted the 
Kurdish cavalry and the Turkish soldiers. It became 



296 THE KURDS AND ARMENIANS. 

the center also of Dr. Kimball's great relief work 
which was carried on through the generous aid fur- 
nished by the Relief Fund of the Christian Herald of 
New York. 

The mountains of Ararat, rise about sixty miles 
north of Lake Van. After crossing the mountain 
divide which separates the watershed of Van from that 
of Ararat, a valley opens out to the northeast. It was 
one of the highways for the armies of the middle ages 
and the head of the valley was once a strongly forti- 
fied city. Here were erected the fortresses that pro- 
tected the eastern frontier of the Byzantine Empire 
when it stood at the zenith of its power. 

Continuing our journey northwards the upland pas- 
tures are soon reached and the Kurdish encampments 
with their black tents begin to be very numerous. 
But being armed with a firman from the Porte, and 
with an official escort we pass on without serious 
trouble. Now we come upon a large encampment 
with numerous tents stretching along the course of a 
clear mountain stream. 

The men are a wild, surly looking set with hair 
streaming down in long straggling locks. All of course 
are fully armed. The possessions of these nomad 
Kurds may be seen about the encampment — sheep, 
goats, oxen, cows, herds of horses, big mastiff dogs 
and greyhounds clothed with small coats. 

A first look at the Kurdish tents gives a person the 
idea that they are chilly habitations, but there are 
tents within tents or separate rooms partitioned off, 
having a plentiful supply of carpets, rugs and pillows 
that are very comfortable indeed even in the coldniglils 
they have at that elevation of nearly eight thousand feet. 



THE KURDS AND ARMENIANS. 297 

Resuming our journey and soon after crossing a 
ridge a thousand feet higher than the valley where 
we have rested — the whole mass of Ararat — not merely 
the snow capped dome — suddenly reveals itself from 
base to summit — a most splendid sight. 

Although the summit of Great Ararat, which has an 
elevation of seventeen thousand nine hundred and six- 
teen feet, yields in height to the peaks of the Caucasus 
in the north and to Demavend (nineteen thousand four 
hundred feet) in the east, nearly five hundred miles 
away, yet, as Bryce in his admirable book has observed, 
there can be but few other places in the world where a 
mountain so lofty rises from a plain so low. The sum- 
mit of Great Ararat has the form of a dome and is 
covered with perpetual snow; this dome crowns an 
oval figure, the length of which is from northwest to 
southeast, and it is therefore the long side of this dome 
which we see from the valley of the Araxes. On 
the southeast, as we follow the outline farther, the 
slope falls at a more rapid gradient of from thirty to 
thirty-five degrees and ends in the saddle between the 
two mountains at a height of nearly nine thousand 
feet. From that point it is the shape of the Little 
Ararat which continues the outline towards the east; it 
rises in the shape of a graceful pyramid to the height 
of twelve thousand eight hundred and forty feet, and 
its summit is distant from that of Great Ararat a space 
of nearly seven miles. The southeastern slope of the 
lesser Ararat corresponds to the northwestern slope of 
the greater mountain and descends to the floor of the 
river valley in a long and regular train. 

This mountain forms the boundary stone of three 
great Empires, the northern slopes of Great Ararat be- 



298 THE KURDS AND ARMENIANS. 

long to Russia, the southern slopes to Turkey, while a 
portion of Little Ararat belongs to Persia. 

From Ararat it is a six days' journej' to Erzeroum 
along what may be called the roof of Western Asia — 
these elevated plains being about six thousand feet 
high, and forming the watershed between the Persian 
Gulf and the Caspian Sea. While its own barrenness 
is as wearisome to the eye as the plains of Wyoming 
from Laramie to the Wasatch Mountains, it is con- 
stantly sending forth its streams to fertilize the far off 
plains to the east and the south. 

From the western slope of Ararat the Euphrates 
takes its rise — rapidly cuts for itself a deep bed through 
steep walls of rock. Half a day's journej 7 down the 
river brings us in sight of the Monastery of Utch 
Keliseh or u Three Churches." Only one, however, 
can be discovered — but that is the finest Ecclesiastical 
building in all Ancient Armenia, though in a sad state 
of disrepair, having been sacked by the Kurds a few 
years ago. 

It is built of large blocks of black and grey stone. It 
has both round and pointed arches ; the western door 
has a rude cable moulding over it, and much interlaced 
ornament. But it would take the pen of a Ruskin and 
numerous photographs to make the stones of this old 
church as eloquent as the Stones of Venice, although 
the story they could tell would be far more tragic than 
any story told beside the murmuring waves of the 
Adriatic. These ruined Monasteries and Churches tell 
us of a superior order of architecture for the houses 
also in the days of prosperity, but now the poverty of 
the villagers is described by their dwellings which are 
sometimes large in area, with low stone wall, flat roofs, 



THE KUKDS AND ARMENIANS. 299 

the living-room raised but a foot or two above the 
floor of the stables. Here they are obliged to live — 
during the bitter cold winter — the warmth from the 
presence of the cattle being necessary to keep them- 
selves from perishing, and for the sake of the heat, the 
smells and the noises are endured. Another day's travel 
will bring us through Delibaba pass which is a succes- 
sion of hills and valleys leading into the plains north- 
ward. After many miles of travel across the broad plain 
through which runs the Araxes eastward, the steep 
climbing of two extended ridges brings us to the top 
of the mountain slope that stretches down into the 
plain of Erzeroum, the city being built on the hillsides 
before they sweep out into the plain. 

Erzeroum is the most important place in Armenia. 
The site is that of an ancient city as it commands the 
pass on the main line of communication between the 
Black Sea and Persia and is just on the edge of a wide 
and fertile plain. 

The population which was once very large has de- 
clined of late years, and is now only about fifty thou- 
sand. About two-thirds are Armenians. Owing to its 
elevation, six thousand feet, and the fact that it lies on 
the north side of the range hence open to the blasts 
from the Black Sea it is very cold in winter. About 
two thousand of the people are Persians, and the great 
carrying trade is largely in their hands. They enjoy 
great freedom and consideration. 

The journey from Erzeroum lies westward across the 
plain for three hours to the foot hills from which issue 
the "Hot Springs," where Anatolius is said to have es- 
tablished his famous baths. In the mountains north of 
Erzeroum, six hours distant, are the sources of the 



300 THE KURDS AND ARMENIANS. 

western branch of the Euphrates River and from the 
warm springs the route lies along the hills overlooking 
the course of the winding river. Crossing the river 
the road skirts the broad and ever-winding valley of 
the Frat as this branch of the Euphrates is called at 
Erzeroum — until turning into a narrow rocky gorge the 
road begins to climb the sides of the lofty Kop Dagh 
which is the great barrier between Erzeroum and 
Baiburt on the road to Trebizond, and forms the water- 
shed between the valle} r s of the Euphrates and the 
Black Sea. The road has been finely engineered and 
the rise is one of easy ascent, but the roadbed is some- 
what out of repair, the smaller bridges are all but im- 
passable. The higher the ascent the grander the views 
become over the successive mountain ranges to the 
south and the long depression that marks the course of 
the Frat, while the wild storms that go sweeping over 
the sky in that direction add to the grandeur of the 
effect. Imagine a sunset from the summit of this pass 
which is nearly eight thousand feet above sea level, and 
then the rapid plunge down the mountain side under 
deepening shadows to the large Khan at its base called 
Kop Khane, which is the natural starting point or rest- 
ing place for all those who cross the pass of Kop Dagh. 
This is a magnificent view across and down a wide 
valley bounded by lofty mountains, and through it runs 
the river Tchoruk, which flowing northwards then 
westward empties itself into the Black Sea at Baton m. 
The town of Baiburt lies on either side of this river. 
The river banks are flanked by extensive gardens with 
fruit and vegetables and large poplar plantations, while 
directly opposite stands the lofty castle hill crowned 
with a long and varied line of fortifications. 



THE KURDS AND ARMENIANS. 301 

Baiburt is a considerable town of two thousand houses, 
three hundred of which are inhabited by Christians. 

This fine old castle was built centuries ago by the 
Armenians, but had been captured and restored by 
the Seljukian Turks. But we will not linger longer 
here. A little farther on is the village of Varzahan 
which possesses some very interesting ruins of mediaeval 
Armenian edifices of elaborate designs. 

Our way now lies over granite mountains, wild and 
bare, though with some elements of grandeur about 
them. Large flocks of broadtailed sheep are feeding 
in the narrow valleys as we carefully pick our way 
along the road which is hardly more than a mountain 
path. The first view of the sea after crossing the chill, 
bleak mountains that divide Armenia from the coast, 
has a most inspiring effect. Away to the northeast rise 
the snow capped mountains of Lazistan, and completing 
all, the expanse of the soft, blue Euxine. 

Our ride is now along terrace paths cut in the forests, 
everywhere embowered in trees. Every turn in the 
road opens up some new vista of beauty. The Greek 
villages on the hillsides present a prosperous appear- 
ance and an aspect of comfort. The faces that we 
see wear the bright, quick look which characterizes 
the Greek face. This is in striking contrast with the 
careworn look of the people of Armenia, where even the 
children had none of the brightness of other children : 
the life seemed too hard, the surroundings too dull, the 
lowering storms of persecution too near for even the 
children to smile. 

The appearance of Trebizond as we approach it from 
the east is singularly pretty. The suburbs, on that 
side, are the starting places of the numerous caravans 



302 THE KUKDS AND ARMENIANS. 

that are fitted out for Persia, then comes the extensive 
Christian quarters and the walled town inhabited by 
the Turks, which is the site of an ancient Byzantine city. 

The total population is estimated at about thirty-two 
thousand, of whom two thousand are Armenians, seven 
or eight thousand Greeks, and the rest, with but a 
sprinkling of foreigners are Turks. 

The city was glorious in the days of Tamerlane. 
Ancient writers were enthusiastic in their praises of its 
lofty towers, of the churches and monasteries in the 
suburbs; especially charming were its gardens and 
orchards and olive groves which the delightful but 
humid climate is so well suited to foster. Nature 
lovingly smiles upon it still, but the handful of scattered 
Christians, the ruins of stately churches, and monas- 
teries and walls all tell the same story of the conquest 
and heartless rule of the Turk, and emphasize with 
silent but pathetic eloquence the moaning cry for de- 
liverance that rose up from prostrate and bleeding 
Armenia. 

As we have traveled we have seen the helplessness 
of the unarmed Armenians when the Kurds went sweep- 
ing down the valleys upon the defenceless villages. 
How hopeless also any attempt at escape when the 
Kurds held possession of all the passes. Saddest of all 
there were no cities of refuge for them. 

Van alone of all the cities of Armenia was able to 
resist and drive back the hordes of mountain warriors, 
yet her fertile plains were swept naked of their beauti- 
ful villages. Thousands of refugees were, however, 
kept alive by the generosity of the tender hearted in 
America as the chapter on Relief Work will graphic- 
ally portray. 



CHAPTER XL 

THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

The time has come for every citizen to deliberately 
accept or repudiate his share of the joint indirect re- 
sponsibility for a series of the lmgest and foulest crimes 
that have ever stained the pages of human history. 
The Armenian people are being exterminated root 
and branch by Turks and Kurds — systematically and 
painfully exterminated by such abominable methods, 
and with such fiendish accompaniments as may well 
cause the most sluggish blood to boil and seethe with 
shame and indignation. 

For the Armenians are not lawless barbarians or 
brigands : nor are the Turks and Kurds the accredited 
torch bearers of civilization. But even if the "roles" 
of the actors in this hideous drama were thus dis- 
tributed, an excuse might at most be found for severity, 
but no pretext could be discovered for the slow torture 
and gradual vivisection employed by fanatic Moham- 
medans to end the lives of their Christian neighbors. 
If for instance it be expedient that Armenians should 
be exterminated, why chop them up piecemeal, and in 
the intervals of this protracted process, banter the 
agonized victims who are wildly calling upon God and 
man to put them out of pain ? 

Why must an honest, hard workingman be torn 
from his bed or his fireside ; forced to witness the 
violation of his own daughter by a band of all pitiless 

(303) 



304 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

demons unable to rescue or help her, and then, his own 
turn come, have his hand cut off and stuffed into his 
mouth while a short sermon is being preached to him 
on the text : " If your God be God, why does He not 
succor? " at the peroration of which the other hand is 
1 lacked off, and then amid boisterous shouts of jubila- 
tion, his ears are torn from his head and his feet severed 
with a hatchet, while the piercing screams, the piteous 
prayers, the hideous contortions of the agonizing victim 
seem to intoxicate with fiendish delight the fanatic 
Moslems who inflict such awful cruelties. And why 
when the last and merciful blow of death is being dealt, 
must obscene jokes and unutterable blasphemies sear 
the victim's soul and prolong his hell to the uttermost 
limits of time, to the very threshold of eternity ? 
Surely, roasting alive, flaying, disembowelling, impal- 
ing and all that elaborate and ingenious aggravation 
of savage pain on which the souls of these human 
fiends seem to feast and flourish, have nothing that 
can excuse them in the eyes of Christians, however 
deeply absorbed in politics or money getting whether 
in Downing Street or in Wall Street. 

But the Turk or Kurd is at his best only a Tartar 
utterly averse to all humanizing influence, and at 
his worst seems a fiend incarnate perpetrating and 
glorying in the horrors just enumerated, and in others 
so gross and vile that they can not be mentioned. 
But remember that while we may shut our ears to the 
horrid tale, innocent women and young children are en- 
during even unto the agonies of death outrages we can 
not imagine. 

The Armenians constitute the sole civilizing force — 
nay with all their faults, the sole humanizing element 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 305 

in Anatolia : peaceful to the last limit of self-sacrifice, 
law-abiding to their own undoing, and at the same 
time industrious and hopeful under conditions which 
would stagger the majorit}' of mankind. At their best 
they are the stuff of which heroes and martyrs are 
made. Most emphatically they are the martyr nation 
of the world. 

They are Christians, believing as we believe that 
God has revealed Himself to the world in Jesus Christ 
for the salvation of men ; and they have held fast to 
that faith in our common Lord in spite of disgrace and 
misery, in the face of fire and sword, in the extremest 
agonies of torture and death. Whether suffering death 
at the hands of the Persia Magi, or being built alive 
by Tamerlane into pyramids of hideous glory, scarcely 
a generation has' passed to the grave without giving up 
its heroes and martyrs to the Cross of Christ. The 
murdered of Sassoun, of Van, or Erzeroum were 
also Christian martyrs : and any or all of those whose 
eyes have been gouged out, whose limbs were torn 
asunder from their bodies might have obtained life 
and comparative prosperity by merely pronouncing the 
formula of Islam and abjuring Christ. But instead of 
this, thousands have commended their souls to their 
Creator, delivered up their bodies to the tormentors, 
endured indescribable agonies, and died, like Christian 
martyrs, defying Heaven itself so to speak, by their 
boundless trust in God, though he seemingly does not 
hear their cries for deliverance. 

The apostacy to Islam by thoso who can no longer 
endure these horrors will, certainly, be laid at the doors 
of Christian Europe and America, who left them to 
perish in the direst, darkest hour of human history. 



306 THE EEIGN OF TERROR. 

All Christendom knows what they are suffering yet not 
a Christian power has said in words like solid shot : 
" These persecutions must cease." Identity of ideals, 
aspirations and religious faith give this unfortunate but 
heroic people strong claims on the sympathy of the 
English-speaking peoples, for our ancestors whatever 
the form of their religious creed never hesitated to die 
for it, and whenever the breath of God swept over 
them breasted the hurricane of persecution. 

But even in the name of a common humanity to say 
nothing of race or creed what special claims to our sympa- 
thy are needed by men and women whom we see, treated 
their masters, as in the dark ages the damned were said 
to be dealt with by the devils in the deepest of hell's 
abysses? Our written laws condemn cruelty to a horse 
or cat or dog; our innate sense of justice would com- 
pel us to punish the man who should wantonly torture 
even a rat by roasting it alive. And yet we read of 
wounded Armenians being thrown into wells where 
kerosene was poured upon them and then being burned 
alive and we are as cool as ever. What more is 
needed to compel us to stretch out a helping hand to 
tens of thousands of virtuous women and innocent 
children to save them from protracted tortures with 
some of which the Gehenna of fire were a swift and 
merciful death. 

Why is it that the sentimental compassion of En- 
gland has not gone out into effective help to poor Ar- 
menia ? For reason of " higher politics." Her interests 
demand that the Turks and Kurds in whose soulless 
bodies legions of devils seem to have taken up their 
abode, shall be protected ; the integrity of the Empire 
and the rule of Islam are essential — indispensable to 




Armenian Mountaineer of Shadokh. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 309 

Christian civilization, i. <?., to England's commercial 
prestige. 

By the terms of the Berlin Treaty and the occupa- 
tion of Cyprus, England bound herself to see to it that 
the Christian peoples under the rule of the Porte should 
have fair, humane treatment. This has been fully and 
clearly shown in our chapter on the Russo-Turkish 
war. At the close of that war (1878) the condition of 
Armenian Christians was from a humane point of view 
deplorable. Yet nothing was done —no efficacious step 
was taken to fulfil that solemn promise- Things were 
allowed to drift from bad to worse, mismanagement to 
develop into malignity, oppression merge into persecu- 
tion, until just as in 1876 most solemn promises of re- 
form were followed by the Bulgarian horrors, so the 
promises for reforms in Armenia after the Sassoun 
massacre were followed by the still more terrible atroc- 
ities which have not yet ceased. 

The Turk knew that the powers would not agree in 
compelling the enforcement of the promises made. 
Time was needed. Yes time in which to slaughter and 
to starve the Armenians whom by the treaty of Berlin 
all the Great Powers were bound to protect in their 
rights. 

But the unfortunate action and reaction of the Eng- 
lish government made themselves immediately and 
fatally felt in the very homes and at the fireside of hun- 
dreds of thousands of Christian men and women driv- 
ing them into exile, shutting them up in noisome prisons 
and subjecting them to every conceivable species of in- 
dignity, outrage and death. By pressing a knob in 
London, as it were, hell's portals were opened in Asia 
Minor, letting loose legions of fiends in human shape 



310 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

who set about torturing and exterminating the Chris- 
tians there. Nor was the government ignorant of the 
wide-reaching effects of its ill-advised action. It is on 
record that for seventeen years it continued to watch 
the harrowing results of that action without once inter- 
fering to stop it although at any moment during that 
long period of persecution it could have redeemed its 
promise and rescued the Christians from their unbear- 
able lot. 

Mr. Dillon says that if a detailed description were 
possible of the horrors which England's exclusive at- 
tention to her own mistaken interests let loose upon 
Turkish Armenians, there is not a man within the 
kingdom of Great Britain whose heart strings would 
not be touched and thrilled by the gruesome stories of 
which it would be composed. 

During all those seventeen years written law, tradi- 
tional custom, the fundamental maxims of human and 
divine justice were suspended in favor of a Mohamme- 
dan Saturnalia. The Christians by whose toil and 
thrift the empire was held together were despoiled, 
beggared, chained, beaten, banished and butchered: 
First, their movable wealth was seized, then their 
landed property was confiscated, next, the absolute nec- 
essaries of life were wrested from them, and finally 
honor, liberty and life were taken with as little to do 
as if these Christian men and women were wasps and 
mosquitoes. Thousands of Armenians were thrown 
into prisons by governors like Tahsin Pasha and Bahri 
Pasha, and tortured and terrorized till they delivered 
up the savings of a lifetime and the support of the 
helpless families to ruffianly parasites. Whole villages 
were attacked in broad daylight by the Imperial Kur- 



THE EEIGN OF TERROR. 311 

dish cavalry without pretext or warning, the male in. 
habitants killed or turned adrift, the wives and daugh- 
ters falling victims to the foul lusts of these bestial 
murderers. 

In a few years some of the provinces were deci- 
mated : Aloghkerd for instance being almost " purged " 
of Armenians. Over twenty thousand woe-stricken 
wretches once healthy and well-to-do, fled to Russia or 
Persia in rags and misery diseased or dying. On the 
way they were seized over and over again by the 
soldiers of the Sultan who deprived them of the little 
money they possessed, nay, of the very clothes they 
were wearing, most shamefully abused the wives and 
daughters and then drove them over the frontier to 
hunger and die. Those who remained behind for a 
time were no better off. Kurdish brigands lifted the 
last cow and goats of the peasants and carried away 
their carpets and their valuables. Turkish tax-gath- 
erers followed after these, gleaning what the brigands 
had left, and lest anything should escape their avarice 
they bound the men, flogged them till their bodies 
were a bloody mass, cicatrized the wounds with red 
hot ramrods, plucked out their beards hair by hair, tore 
the flesh from their limbs with pincers and often even 
then hung the men whom they had thus beggared and 
maltreated from the rafters of their houses to witness 
with burning shame and impotent rage the hellish out- 
rages of these fiends incarnate. 

Terrible as these scenes are even in imagination, it is 
only proper that some effort should be made to realize 
the sufferings which have been brought down upon 
these thousands and hundreds of thousands of help- 
less men and vvomen, and to understand somewhat of 



312 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

the shame, terror and despair that must take possession 
of the souls of Christians whose lives are a daily 
martyrdom of such unchronicled agonies, during which 
no ray of the life-giving light that plays about the 
throne of God ever pierces the mist of blood and 
tears that rises between the blue of heaven and the 
everlasting grey of the charnel house called Ar- 
menia. 

These statements are neither rumors nor exagger- 
ations concerning which we are justified in suspending 
judgment, — though the Turks long denied the reports 
of the Sassoun massacres. History has set its seal 
upon them. Diplomacy has slowly verified and reluc- 
tantly recognized them as accepted facts. Religion and 
humanity are now called upon to place their emphatic 
protest against them on record. 

The Turks in their confidential moods have admitted 
these and worse acts of savagery. The Kurds glor}'- 
in them at all times. Trustworthy Europeans have 
witnessed them and described them : and the Arme- 
nians have groaned over them in blank despair, and 
the sweat of their anguish has been blood. 

Officers and nobles in the Sultan's own cavalry regi- 
ments like Mostigo the Kurd, glory in the long series 
of crimes and outrages which have marked their career, 
and laugh to scorn the idea of being punished for rob- 
bing and killing the Armenians whom the Sublime 
Porte desires them to exterminate. 

The stories of the Bulgarian atrocities were repeated 
here. It was the Armenians themselves who were 
punished if they dared complain when their own rela- 
tives or friends were murdered. And often they were 
punished on the charge of having committed these 



*HE LlKlGN OF TERROR. 313 

Outrages themselves, or else on the suspicion of having 
killed the murderers wh:) were afterwards found living 
and thriving in the Sultan's employ, and were never 
disturbed there. 

Three hundred and six of the principal inhabitants 
of the district of Khnouss in a piteous appeal to the 
people of England, wrote : — 

" Year by year, month by month, clay by day, inno- 
cent men, women and children have been shot down, 
stabbed, or clubbed to death in their houses and their 
fields, tortured in strange fiendish ways in fetid prison 
cells, or left to rot in exile under the scorching sun of 
Arabia. During that long and horrible tragedy no 
voice was raised for mercy, no hand extended to help 
us. * * * Is European sympathy destined to take the 
form of a cross over our graves." 

Now the answer has been given. What an answer! 
These ill-fated men might know that European sym- 
pathy has taken a different form — that of a marine 
guard "before the Sultan's palace to shield him and his 
fmm harm from without, while they proceed with their 
°'gies of blood and lust within. They might know; 
only mojt of them have been butchered since then, like 
the relatives and friends whose lot they lamented and 
yet envied. 

In accordance with the plan of extermination, which 
has uee:i carried out with such signal success during 
u nese long years of Turkish vigor and English sluggish- 
ness, all those Armenians who possessed money or 
money's worth were for a time allowed to purchase im- 
munity from prison, and from all that prison life in 
Asia Minor implies. But, as soon as terror and sum- 
mary confiscation took the place of slow and elaborate 



514 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

extortion, the gloomy dungeons of Erzeroum, Erzing- 
hau, Marsovan, Hassankaleh, and Van were rilled, till 
there was no place to sit down, and scarcely sufficient 
standing room. And this means more than English 
people can realize, or any person believe who has not 
actually witnessed it. It would have been a torture 
for Turkish troopers and Kurdish brigands, but it was 
worse than death to the educated schoolmasters, mis- 
sionaries, priests, and physicians who were immured in 
these noisome hotbeds of infection, and forced to sleep 
night after night standing on their feet, leaning against 
the foul, reeking corner of the wall which all the pris- 
oners were compelled to use as ... . The very 
worst class of Tartar and Kurdish criminals were 
turned in here to make these hell-chambers more un- 
bearable to the Christians. And the experiment was 
everywhere successful. Human hatred and diabolical 
spite, combined with the most disgusting sights and 
sounds and stenches, with their gnawing hunger and 
their putrid food, their parching thirst and the slimy 
water, fit only for sewers, rendered their agony mad- 
dening. Yet these were not criminals, nor alleged 
criminals, but upright Christian men, who were never 
even accused of an infraction of the law. No man who 
has not seen these prisons with his own eyes, and heard 
these prisoners with his own ears, can be expected to 
conceive, much less realize, the sufferings inflicted and 
endured. The loathsome diseases, whose terrible rav- 
ages were freely displayed ; the still more loathsome 
vices, which were continually and openly practised ; 
the horrible blasphemies, revolting obscenities and ri- 
bald jests which alternated with cries of pain, songs of 
vice, and prayers to the unseen God, made these pris- 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 315 

ons, in some respects, nearly as bad as the Black Hole 
of Calcutta, and in others infinitely worse. 

Into these prisons venerable old ministers of reli- 
gion were dragged from their churches, teachers from 
their schools, missionaries from their meeting-houses, 
merchants, physicians, and peasants from their fire- 
sides. Those among them who refused to denounce 
their friends, or consent to some atrocious crime, were 
subjected to horrible agonies. Many a one, for instance, 
was put into a sentry-box bristling with sharp spikes, 
and forced to stand there motionless, without food or 
drink, for twenty-four and even thirty-six hours, was 
revived with stripes whenever he fell fainting to the 
prickly floor, and was carried out unconscious at the 
end. It was thus that hundreds of Armenian Chris- 
tians, whose names and histories are on record, suffered 
for refusing to sign addresses to the Sultan accusing 
their neighbors and relatives of high treason. It was 
thus that Azo was treated by his judges, the Turkish 
officials, Talib Effendi, Captain Reshid, and Captain 
Hadji Fehim Agha, for declining to swear away the 
lives of the best men of his village. A whole night 
was spent in torturing him. He was first bastinadoed 
in a room close to which his female relatives and friends 
were shut up so that they could hear his cries. Then 
he was stripped naked, and two poles, extending from 
his armpits to his feet, were placed on each side of his 
body and tied tightly. His arms were next stretched 
out horizontally and poles arranged to support his 
hands. This living cross was then bound to a pillar, 
and the flogging began. The whips left livid traces be- 
hind. The wretched man was unable to make the 
slightest movement to ease his pain. His features 



316 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

alone, hideously distorted, revealed the angifish he en- 
dured. The louder he cried, the more heavily fell the 
whip. Over and over again he entreated his tormentors 
to put him out of pain, saying : " If you want my death, 
kill me with a bullet, but for God's sake don't torture 
me like this ! " His head alone being free he, at last, 
maddened by excruciating pain, endeavored to dash out 
his brains against the pillar, hoping in this way to end 
his agony. But this consummation was hindered by 
the police. They questioned him again ; but in spite 
of his condition, Azo replied as before : " I cannot de- 
file my soul with the blood of innocent people. I am a 
Christian." Enraged at this obstinacy, Talib Effendi, 
the Turkish official, ordered the application of other 
and more effective tortures. Pincers were fetched to 
pull out his teeth ; but, Azo remaining firm, this method 
was not long persisted in. Then Talib commanded his 
servants to pluck out the prisoner's moustachios b} T the 
roots, one hair at a time. This order the gendarmes 
executed, with roars of infernal laughter. But this 
treatment proving equally ineffectual, Talib instructed 
his men to cauterize the unfortunate victim's body. A 
spit was heated in the fire. Azo's arms were freed from 
their supports, and two brawny policemen approached, 
one on each side, and seized him. Meanwhile another 
gendarme held to the middle of the wretched man's 
hands the glowing spit. While his flesh was thus burn- 
ing, the victim shouted out in agony, " For the love of 
God kill me at once ! " 

Then the executioners, removing the red hot spit 
from his hands, applied it to his breast, then to his 
back, his face, his feet, and other parts. After this, 
they forced open his mouth, and burned hi<* tonffiio 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 317 

with red hot pincers. " During these inhuman op- 
erations, Azo fainted several times, but on recover- 
ing consciousness maintained the same inflexibility of 
purpose. Meanwhile, in the adjoining apartment, a 
heartrending scene was being enacted. The women 
and the children, terrified by the. groans and cries of 
the tortured man, fainted. When they revived, they 
endeavored to rush out to call for help, but the gen- 
darmes, stationed at the door, barred their passage, and 
brutally pushed them back.* 

Nights were passed in such hellish orgies and days in 
inventing new tortures or refining upon the old, with 
an ingenuity which reveals unimagined strata of malig- 
nity in the human heart. The results throw the most 
sickening horrors of the Middle Ages into the shade. 
Some of them cannot be described, nor even hinted at. 
The shock to people's sensibilities would be too ter- 
rible. And yet they were not merely described to, but 
endured by, men of education and refinement, whose 
sensibilities were as delicate as ours. 

And when the prisons in which these and analogous 
doings were carried on had no more room for new- 
comers, some of the least obnoxious of its actual in- 
mates were released for a bribe, or, in case of poverty, 
were expeditiously poisoned off. 

In the homes of these wretched people the fiendish 
fanatics were equally active and equally successful. 
Family life was poisoned at its very source. Dishonor 
menaced almost every girl and woman in the country. 
They could not stir out of their houses in the broad 

*Tlie .above description is taken literally from a report of the British Vice- 
Consul of Erzeroum. Copies are in possession of the diplomatic representa- 
tives of the Powers at Constantinople. The scene occurred in the village of 
Semal before the massacres, during the normal condition of things. 



, 4, ,18 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

daylight to visit the bazaars, or to work in the fields, 
nor even lie down at night in their own homes without 
fearing the fall of that Damocles' sword, ever suspended 
over their heads. Tender youth, childhood itself, was 
no guarantee. Children were often married at the age 
of eleven, even ten, in the vain hope of lessening this 
danger. But the protection of a husband proved un- 
availing; it merely meant one murder more, and one 
" Christian dog " less. A bride would be married in 
church yesterday and her body would be devoured by 
the beasts and birds of prey to-morrow. Others -would 
be abducted, and, having for weeks been subjected to 
the embrace of lawless Kurds, would end by abjuring 
their God and embracing Islam ; not from any vulgar 
motive of gain, but to escape the burning shame of re- 
turning home as pariahs and lepers to be shunned by 
those near and dear to them for ever. Little girls of 
five and six were frequently forced to be present during 
these horrible scenes, and they, too, were often sacri- 
ficed before the eyes of their mothers, who would have 
gladly, madly accepted death, a} r , and damnation, to 
save their tender offspring from the corroding poison. 

One of the abducted young women who, having been 
outraged by the son of the Deputy-Governor of Khnouss, 
Hussni Bey, returned, a pariah, and is now alone in the 
world, lately appealed to her English sisters for such 
aid as a heathen would give to a brute, and she be- 
sought it in the name of our common God. Lucine 
Mussegh — this is the name of that young woman whose 
Protestant education gave her, as she thought, a special 
claim to act as the spokeswoman of Armenian mothers 
and daughters — Lucine Mussegh besought, last March, 
the women of England to obtain for the women of Ar- 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 319 

menia the privilege of living a pure and chaste life ! 
This was the boon which she craved — but did not, 
could not, obtain. The interests of " higher politics," 
the civilizing missions of the Christian Powers are, it 
seems, incompatible with it ! " For the love of the God 
whom we worship in common," wrote this outraged, but 
still hopeful, Armenian lady, "help us, Christian sis- 
ters ! Help us before it is too late, and take the thanks 
of the mothers, the wives, the sisters, and the daugh- 
ters of my people, and with them the gratitude of one 
for whom, in spite of her youth, death would come as 
a happy release." 

Neither the Christian sisters nor the Christian breth- 
ren in England have seen their way to comply with 
this strange request. But it may perhaps interest Lu- 
cine Mussegh to learn that the six Great Powers of 
Europe are quite unanimous, and are manfully resolved, 
come what will, to shield His Majesty the Sultan from 
harm, to support his rule, and to guarantee his kingdom 
from disintegration- These are objects worthy of the 
attention of the Great Powers ; as for the privilege of 
leading pure and chaste lives — they cannot be impor- 
tuned about such private matters. 

What astonishes one throughout this long, sickening 
story of shame and crime is the religious faith of the 
sufferers. It envelops them like a Nessus' shirt, aggra- 
vating their agonies by the fear it inspires that they 
must have offended in some inexplicable way the omnip- 
otent God who created them. What is not at all 
wonderful, but only symptomatic, is the mood of one 
of the women, who, having prayed to God in heaven, 
discovered no signs of His guiding hand upon earth, 
and whose husband was killed in presence of her daugh 



320 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

ter, after which each of the two terrified females was 
outraged by the band of ruffians in turn. When gaz- 
ing, a few days later, on the lifeless corpse of that be- 
loved child whom she had vainly endeavored to save, 
that wretched, heartbroken mother, wrung to frenzy 
by her soul-searing anguish, accounted to her neigh- 
bors for the horrors that were spread over her people 
and her country by the startling theory that God Him- 
self had gone mad, and that maniacs and demons incar- 
nate were stalking about the world! 

Such, in broad outline, has been the normal condition 
of Armenia ever since the Treaty of Berlin, owing at 
first to the disastrous action, and subsequently to the 
equally disastrous inaction of the British Government. 
The above sketch contains but a few isolated instances 
of the daily commonplaces of the life of Armenian 
Christians. When these have been multiplied by thou- 
sands and the colors duly heightened, a more or less 
adequate idea may be formed of the hideous reality. 
Now, during all those seventeen years, we took no seri- 
ous step to put an end to the brigandage, rapes, tor- 
tures, and murders which all Christendom agreed with 
us in regarding as the normal state of things. No one 
deemed it his duty to insist on the punishment of the 
professional butchers and demoralizers, who founded 
their claims to preferment upon the maintenance of this 
inhuman system, and had their claims allowed, for the 
Sultan, whose intelligence and humanity it was the 
fashion to eulogise and admire, decorated and rewarded 
these faithful servants, making them participators in the 
joy of their lord Indeed, the utter perversion of the 
ideas of justice and humanity which characterized the 
views of European Christendom during the long period 



SASSOUN. 



321 



of oppression and demoralization at last reached such 
a pitch that the Powers agreed to give the Sultan a 
" reasonable " time to reestablish once more the normal 
state of things. 

SASSOUN. 

Sassoun is a mountainous province in the southern 
portion of the Armenian plateau, west of Lake Van. It 
is inhabited exclusively by Armenians and Kurds, the 
former race being in majority. There is, however, no 
intermingling of the races ; the Armenian villages are 
grouped in the center of the province, and the Kurdish 
are scattered all around. 




Despite continuous spoliation by Kurd and Turk, 
the Armenians managed to get along tolerably. But 
Turk and Kurd became more and more exacting, the 
Kurd being instructed by the Turk. The Kurds would 
be satisfied with the traditional tribute, but the Turk- 
ish authorities incited them to demand more, to plunder 
and to kill. 



322 sassoun. 

The Armenians of Sassoun were fully aware of the 
hostile intention of the Government, but they did not 
imagine it to be one of utter extermination. 

The Porte had prepared its plans. Sassoun was 
doomed. 

The Kurds were to come in much greater number, 
the Government was to furnish them provisions and 
ammunition, and the regular army was to second them 
in case of need. 

The plan was to destroy first Shenig, Semal, Guellie- 
goozan, Aliantz, etc., and then to proceed towards 
Dalvorig. 

The Kurds, notwithstanding their immense number, 
proved to be unequal to the task. The Armenians held 
their own and the Kurds got worsted. 

After two weeks fight between Kurd and Armenian, 
the regular army entered into active campaign. 

Mountain pieces began to thunder. The Armenians, 
having nearly exhausted their ammunition, took to 
flight. 

Kurd and Turk pursued them and massacred men, 
women and children. The houses were searched and 
then put on fire. 

The scene of the massacre was most horrible. The 
enemies took a special delight in butchering the Dalvorig 
people. 

An immense crowd of Kurd and Turk soldiery fell 
upon the Dalvorig village, busy to search the houses, to 
find out hidden furniture, and then to put fire to the 
village. 

A native of the Dalvorig village, succeeded in hiding 
from the searching soldiers, and when, twelve days 
after the destruction of his home, the army went away, 



sassoun. 323 

he came out of his hiding place and looked among the 
corpses for his own dead. He found and buried his 
father, two nephews and his aunt. The bodies were 
swollen enormously in the sun, and the stench was 
something awful in all the surroundings. He witnessed 
many acts of military cruelties which are not proper to 
be reported. 

In June, 1893, four young Armenians and their 
wives, living only two miles from the city of Van, 
where the Governor and a large military force leside, 
were picking herbs on the hillside. They carefully 
kept together and intended to return before night. 
They were observed by a band of passing Kurds, who 
in broad daylight fell upon the defenseless party, butch- 
ered the young men, and, as to the brides, it is need- 
less to relate further. The villagers going out the next 
day found the four bodies, not simply dead, but slashed 
and disfigured almost beyond recognition. They re- 
solved to make a desperate effort to let their wrongs at 
least be known. 

Hastily yoking up four rude ox carts they placed on 
each the naked remains of one of the victims, with his 
distracted widow sitting by the side, shorn of her hair 
in token of dishonor. This gruesome procession soon 
reached the outskirts of the city, where it was met by 
soldiers sent to turn it back. The unarmed villagers 
offered no resistance, but declared their readiness to per- 
ish if not heard. The soldiers shrank from extreme 
measures that might cause trouble among the thirty- 
thousand Armenians of Van, who rapidly gathered 
about the scene. The Turkish bayonets retreated be- 
fore the bared breasts of the villagers. With ever-in- 
creasing numbers, but without tumult, the procession 



324 sassoun. 

passed before the doors of the British and Russian vice- 
consulates, of the Persian consul-general, the chief of 
police and other high officials, till it paused before the 
great palace of the Governor. 

At this point Bahri Pasha, the Governor, stuck his 
head out of the second story window and said : ' I see 
it. Too bad ! Take them away and bury them. I 
will do what is necessary.' Within two days some 
Kurds were brought in, among whom were several who 
were positively identified by the women ; but, upon their 
denying the crime, they were immediately released, and 
escaped. 

In 1893, the impoverished Armenians stripped of 
everything worth possessing, decided to resist further 
robberies. Early in the spring of that year, the Kurds 
came with demands more exorbitant than ever, the 
chiefs being escorted by a great number of armed men, 
but they were driven back by the brave villagers. 
When this became known to the Ottoman authorities, 
some of the more zealous of them applied for a large 
body of regular troops. The Turkish Government af- 
fected to believe that the secret political agitation which 
had been going on among the Armenians for some time 
had at length produced a serious revolt, and that it was 
necessary to quell it at once in energetic and relentless 
fashion. 

Orders were accordingly sent to Zekki Pasha, the 
Mushir commanding the troops at Erzinghian, to pro- 
ceed to Sassoun with a sufficient force and suppress the 
disturbances. The precise terms of the instructions to 
this energetic Pasha never transpired and were never 
known to any one outside the Turkish official world. 
Whatever they were the Pasha evidently understood 






i " ! g,: y K 'p i- ■i„J'..'""\& >M ' ']„"". ' > ' ra.r. J 



.':.•.'>;' 










sassoun. 327 

that he was literally to annihilate those who had re^. 
sisted the authority of the local officials, and he exe- 
cuted what he supposed to be the wishes of his superi- 
ors with a barbarity towards both men and women, 
which deserves the reprobation of the civilized world. 
The Turkish soldiers hesitated to carry out such atro- 
cious orders against defenceless women and men who 
offered no resistance, and they did not obey until threat- 
ened with condign punishment for disobedience. The 
protests of the Mutessarif, the civil Governor of the 
district, were disregarded. 

The fixed hour of fate arrived. 

In August 1894, Kurdish and Turkish troops came to 
Sassoun. Among them the famous Hamidieh troops, 
the specially organized Kurdish cavalry named after the 
Sultan, the name significant of the purpose for which 
they were organized. 

Zekki Pasha who commanded on that infamous oc- 
casion was afterwards decorated by the Sultan as were 
four Kurdish chiefs who had been specially savage and 
merciless during the progress of the carnage, while the 
Civil Governor of the district who so humanely pro- 
tested was summarily removed from his post. 

The Kurds were newly armed with Martini rifles. 
Zekki Pasha, who had come from Erzingan, read the 
Sultan's order for the attack, and then urged the sol- 
diers to loyal obedience to their Imperial master. 
On the last day of August, the anniversary of Abdul 
Hamid's accession to the throne, the soldiers were 
specially urged to distinguish themselves in making 
it the day of greatest slaughter. On that day the 
commander wore the edict of the Sultan on his breast. 
Kurds began the butchery by attacking the sleeping 
19 



328 sassoun. 

villagers at night and slaying men, women and children. 
For twenty-three days this horrible work of slaughter 
lasted. Some of the Kurds afterward boasted of 
killing a hundred Christians apiece. At one village, 
Galogozan, many young men were tied hand and 
foot, laid in a row, covered with brushwood and 
burned alive. Others were seized and hacked to 
death piecemeal. At another village, a priest and 
several leading men were captured and promised 
release if they would tell where others had fled ; and, 
after telling, all but the priest were killed. A chain 
was put around his neck and pulled from opposite 
sides until he was several times choked and revived, 
after which bayonets were planted upright and he was 
raised in the air and dropped upon them. The men of 
one village, when fleeing, took the women and children, 
some five hundred in number, and placed them in a 
ravine where soldiers found them and butchered them. 
Little children were cut in two and mutilated. Women 
were subjected to fearful agonies, ending in death. A 
newly wedded couple fled to a hilltop ; soldiers followed 
and offered them their lives if they would accept Islam, 
but they preferred to die bravely professing Christ. 
On Mount Andoke, south of Moush, about a thousand 
persons sought refuge. The Kurds attacked them, but 
for days were repulsed. Then Turkish soldiers di- 
rected the fire of their cannon on them. Finally the 
ammunition of the fugitives was exhausted, and the 
troops succeeded in reaching the summit unopposed and 
butchered them to a man. In the Talvoreeg district, 
several thousand Armenians were left in a small plain. 
When surrounded by Turks and Kurds the}^ appealed 
to heaven for deliverance, but were quickly dispatched 



sassoun. 329 

with rifles, bayonets and swords. The plain was a ver- 
itable shamble. 

No accurate estimate of the number slain in the first 
massacre could be made. Forty villages were totally 
destroyed and the loss of life from ten to fifteen thou- 
sand. Efforts were made to conceal the real extent of 
the carnage, but the "blood-bath of Sassoun" has 
passed into history and cannot be forgotten. 

At Bitlis there was a Kurdish raid on Armenian cat- 
tle, resulting in a fight in which two Kurds were killed. 

The friends of the Kurds took the corpses to Moush 
and declared that the Armenians had overrun the land 
and were killing and plundering right and left. This 
furnished a pretext for a massing of the troops. 

On the admissions of Turkish soldiers, some of whom 
tearfully protested that they merely obeyed orders, six 
thousand people were killed. No compassion was 
shown to age or sex. In one place three or four hun- 
dred women, after having been forced repeatedly to 
submit to the soldiery, were hacked to pieces with 
swords and bayonets. In another place two hundred 
women begged at the commander's feet for mercy. 
The commander, after ordering that they be outraged, 
had them all despatched with the sword. Similar 
scenes were enacted in other places. 

Tn one case sixty young brides and maidens were 
driven into a church, and after being violated were 
butchered until their blood flowed from the doors. 

A large company, headed by a priest, knelt near the 
church begging for compassion, averring that they had 
nothing to do with the culprits who killed the Kurds. 
It was in vain ; all were killed. 

Several attractive women were told that they might 



330 SASSOUN. 

live if they would recant their faith. They replied : 
"Why should we deny Christ? We have no more 
reason to do so than had these," pointing to the man- 
gled bodies of their husbands and brothers, " Kill us, 
too." This was done. 

A priest was taken to the roof of his church and 
hacked to pieces ; young men were placed among wood 
saturated with kerosene and set on fire. After the 
massacre, and when the terrified survivors had fled, 
there was a general looting by the Hamidieh Kurds. 
They stripped the houses bare, then piled the dead into 
them and fired the whole, intending as far as possible 
to cover up the evidences of their dreadful crime. 

The rivulets were choked with corpses ; the streams 
ran red witli human blood, the mountain gorges and 
rocky caves were crowded with the dead and dying ; 
among the black ruins of once prosperous villages lay 
half-burned infants on their mothers' mangled bodies: 
pits were dug at night by the wretches destined to fill 
them ; many of whom were flung in while but slightly 
wounded, and underneath a mountain of clammy corpses 
struggled vainly with death and with the dead who 
shut them out of life and light forever. 

The following letter from an Armenian native of 
Sassoun added another page to the tale of woe : — 

" At last we have escaped from the barbarity and 
atrocity of the Turks, and have arrived at Athens. 
Our escape from Sassoun was almost miraculous, and it 
is possible that the cannon and knives of the Turkish 
soldiers are still doing their bloody work there. 
Everybody knows that the orders for the massacre were 
given by direct counsellors of the Sultan. 

" There is Hardly a man left alive in Sassoun, and 



SASSOUN. 331 

pleading women and little children, all together, old 
and young, have been sacrificed by the swords of the 
Turkish soldiers. They besieged the village from the 
last of April until the first of August, and during all 
these weeks we fed on vegetables and the roots of 
grasses. 

" The first few weeks were bitterly cold, and exist- 
ence was terrible. All outside communication was cut 
off. The Turks suspected that other villages would 
give us food, and so they plundered the neighboring 
villages. The villagers resisted and hundreds of them 
were killed. Of the three hundred and twenty-five 
houses which made up the village of Varteniss only 
thirt}'-five were left standing. 

" When the news of this massacre reached Sassoun 
our people were excited beyond all thought of personal 
safety, and we attacked the soldiers and succeeded in 
killing twelve of them. Then more ammunition and 
soldiers were sent there, and a devilish work was be- 
gun. 

" The Chiefs of the tribes of the Kurds, with Celo 
Bey and his staff, together with the regular soldiers, 
came to the village of Samal. Many of the inhabit- 
ants, after suffering atrocious cruelties, were put to 
death. They brought the minister of the village from 
his house, and after putting the sacred chalice into his 
hands, bound him to a donkey and then shot him and 
the animal together. In all, the number killed in the 
village was forty-five. 

"This deviltry was by no means the worse perpe- 
trated. The greatest horror was at the village of Gely 
Guse. Celo Bey and his men entered the village be- 
fore daybreak, and while the inhabitants were peace- 



332 sassoun. 

fully sleeping in their homes set fire to the whole vil- 
lage, and not one escaped. The village of Shenig met 
with almost a similar fate, all the people of prominence 
being killed. 

"The tribe of Kurds known as Gebran, headed by 
the Chief Ebo and accompanied by Turkish soldiers, 
entered the village of Konk. There they gathered all 
the women in the church. After defiling them in the 
most revolting manner, they slew them. The soldiers 
spent the night in the village in revelry and de- 
bauchery. 

" Two other tribes, those of Pakran and Khisan, 
came against the village of Alpak. They collected all 
the herds and flocks, and drove them off. Then they 
returned and burned the whole village. 

" We who have escaped thank God for our safety and 
are prayerfully exchanging the helpful sympathy of the 
civilized world." 

Another letter from a Sassonn fugitive, gave the 
saddening story of the experience of one family. It 
is typical of the experience of thousands of others. 
He wrote: 

" Our family was composed of ten members, and 
were natives of Semal, a village in Sassoun. We 
fought the Kurds to protect our lives and property ; 
but when the Turkish soldiers united with the Kurds, 
we fled. I was with my father. He could not run 
away because he was very weak, having eaten nothing 
for many days. I entered, with the rest of my family, 
into a thick forest. The soldiers overtook my father 
and struck him with their swords, disemboweling him ; 
they filled his body with gunpowder and set fire to 
him. Afterwards I went with others and gathered 



sassoun. 333 

up what remained of my poor father and buried 
him. 

" With the rest of my family I remained forty days 
in the forests, subsisting on herbs and roots until the 
soldiers were recalled, and there was nobody to pursue 
us. We came down to Moush, and the government sent 
us to Khibian, a village in the Moush plain, where we 
remained in a dilapidated hut with very little to eat. 
All of us became sick from hunger and cold: two girls 
and one boy died, and the rest, six members of our 
family, are now wandering from village to village, 
naked and hungry." 

Neither age nor sex were spared. A final refusal to 
deny Christ and accept Islam sealed the fate of the Ar- 
menian. Women torn from their homes and outraged, 
and hundreds of young girls forcibly carried off, fiend- 
ishly used and wantonly slain, and other horrors un- 
namable and unfit to print, were some of the methods 
employed with the Sultan's permission, in upholding 
the glory of Islam. 

The following narrative, was also obtained from Ar- 
menian sources : " Andakh was besieged in August. 
Gorgo, with his followers, strengthened their position 
and defended it heroically for six days, generally fight- 
ing with stones and daggers. The women often took 
the places of these who had been killed. The position 
becoming untenable, Gorgo left the women to defend 
it, and took his troops out to forage for food and am- 
munition. The women maintained the defence twenty- 
four hours, then jdelded to greater numbers after being 
surrounded on all sides. Their condition was terrible. 
Many carried babies on their backs, while the elder 
children stood beside them. The women saw that they 



334 . sassoun. 

never could fight their way through the ranks of the 
enemy. Gorgo's wife stepped on a high rock and cried, 
' Sisters, you must choose between two things : Either 
fall into the hands of the Turks and forget your hus- 
bands, homes, and your holy religion to adopt Islam, 
and to be violated, or you must follow my example.' 
Thereupon, holding her young child in her arms, she 
dashed herself into the abyss. Others followed her, 
falling without cry or groan. The children followed 
their mothers, and the ravine was soon filled with 
corpses. Those who jumped last were not hurt, as 
their companions' bodies were piled high. About fifty 
women and one hundred children were taken prisoners. 
The women bore their tortures silently, and refused to 
betray Gorgo and his brave followers. Gorgo's wife 
was named Schakhe." 

The following accounts gave in realistic language, 
some of the sufferings of the native Christians, who 
met death bravely rather than purchase life by denjdng 
their Saviour. 

A man from Central Dalvorig, said : His family 
numbered twelve ; of these six had been killed. His 
wife, a son six years of age, and a little girl, a brother, 
a daughter five years old, and son aged ten. These 
children tried to flee, but being greatly reduced by 
h Linger, were unable to escape from the soldiers pur- 
suing them. A brother, Shemo, survived, and with 
his wife and children found refuge in a monas- 
tery. He saw a group of three brothers, while 
hidden behind some trees, surprised by soldiers and 
brutally murdered. They were boys about three, 
seven, and ten years of age. Their anguished mother, 
from Hodwink, utterly powerless to rescue her chil- 



sassoun. 335 

dren, witnessed the awful deed from her place of con- 
cealment, and after the soldiers had gone, went and 
buried them. The same writer repeatedly heard women 
say, " We will be a sacrifice for our nation, but we can- 
not deny our faith." 

A man from Galigozan said that he had an uncle and 
three cousins killed in the massacre — all were shot and 
one was mutilated with the sword. Another nephew, 
thirty-five years of age, was burned in a house from 
which he could not escape. His wife and two children 
remained for five weeks in the covert afforded by the 
rocks and holes of a mountain side. On seeing soldiers 
approach one day, a man nearly strangled his little 
daughter, four years of age, to suppress her cries for 
food. She died a few days afterward from the effects 
of his treatment. The niece was betrothed to a young 
man from Semel who, with three others from the same 
house, came to Galigozan when the soldier called to 
surrender, promising safety. But on appearing there 
the whole company were told that they must either 
embrace Islam or meet instant death. The four men 
above referred to with forty others, were there pitilessly 
slaughtered, and thrown into the pit which had been 
dug. 

From Spughawk, a village near Dalvorig, a man gave 
an account of the fate of his family. A Kurdish Sheik 
with fifteen hundred followers came and the terrified 
people fled to the mountain. In the attempt to escape 
many were killed. Afterwards soldiers came and with 
the Kurds surrounded the village, plundered and 
burned it. Its fine church built of hewn stone laid in 
lime and having an arched roof, was razed to the 
ground. This man's brother Arakil was shot and then 



336 sassoun. 

pierced with twelve bayonet wounds. His nephew was 
killed with the bayonet and a niece who was about to 
be married was decapitated. 

A woman and her two sons (thirty and seven years 
of age), were discovered by soldiers. They first at- 
tacked the woman, inflicting dangerous, though as it 
proved, not fatal wounds, and then killed her two sons. 
After the departure of the soldiers the mother with one 
hand, (the fingers of the other had been mangled), 
scraped shallow holes in the ground using sharp stones 
and then dragging the bodies of her sons thither, 
covered them with earth and stones. One man said 
that his family consisted of twelve persons. His 
brother was one of the chief men of the place, con- 
spicuous at all times for his ability and courage. The 
soldiers had heard of this man and were anxious to find 
him. Finally they discovered his hiding place and at- 
tacked him fiercely saying : " At last we have found 
you, infidel ! " With cursing and dreadful language 
they literally hacked him to pieces, his son, and his 
brother's wife hidden among rocks near by, para- 
lyzed with terror, saw the awful deed. His son Sarkis 
was afterward slain, as also his nephews. 

A woman from Dalvorig said : " Of the twelve in my 
family, three were killed in the massacre, my husband 
(forty years), daughter (ten years), and Hukhit, my 
infant son. A brother-in-law was taken captive, and 
after suffering much from cruel treatment, died in 
Moush prison. When we saw the smoke of the burn- 
ing villages we hastily fled. We had buried our most 
valuable household goods some days previous, but the 
Kurds found and carried off everything. While con- 
cealed among the rocks and thickets we heard the 



SASSOTTN. 337 

sound of trumpets, and fearing lest we should be hunted 
down by the soldiery, about one hundred refugees got 
together and we then decided to go to the Hinatsee 
tribe of Kurds; (they were the aghas of our province), 
and implore their protection. We set out early in the 
morning and soon met five Kurds who said to us: 
' Come to the camp, to the surrender ; there is peace.' 
Thus saying, one of them seized a mule, the only animal 
we had with us, and rode away to betray us as it after- 
ward proved. We followed the four Kurds till we 
came near a river. Then we saw two large companies 
of Kurds approaching us, one some distance below us, 
the other on the opposite side of the river. These soon 
surrounded us. They were led by a mollah, one of the 
followers of the noted Sheikh of Zeelon. They drove 
us into a ravine. One of our company attempted to 
escape, but was instantly cut down with the sword. 
The Kurds gave us the alternative of accepting the 
Moslem faith or death. With one accord we all said, 
' We cannot deny our Christ.' Immediately they 
seized the men, there were only eleven in our company, 
bound their arms with cords, and then took from us 
women and children all clothing worth removing. 
Many were left with a single garment. One aged 
woman near us was left stark naked. After this the 
mollah sent a letter to the Turkish camp, which was 
about half an hour distant from Dalvorig village, in- 
quiring as to what should be done with us. I heard 
them talk about the letter. Soon after this I heard the 
Kurds plotting to take the young women and send the 
others away to the mountains. 

" They did not unite in this plan, and as the darkness 
came on they counted us and set a watch and lay down 



338 sassoun. 

to rest on the ground about the ravine. The next day 
towards noon they decided to take us to the Turkish 
camp and ordered us to set out. Our husbands and 
brothers who had been bound the night before were in 
a pitiable condition, — their arms and hands badly 
swollen. Shortly after this the Kurds dispersed and 
we made our escape to the mountains. One day while 
hiding among the rocks I saw my husband, and son-in- 
law, Kevork, bound by cords and cruelly murdered. 
My husband was cut limb from limb — literally hacked, 
to pieces. Too terrified to move I stood gazing at the 
awful sight, when suddenly five Kurds sprang upon me. 
They did not harm me but wanted my child. I threw 
m} r self upon the ground to shield him, - but they dragged 
me to one side and stabbed him with a dagger. (Her 
twelve-year old daughter was not far away. She was 
greatly terrified, having witnessed the murder of her 
father and brother.) I ran to her and tried to pull her 
along as we fled, but she soon stopped and exclaiming, 
' mother, I am dying, ' fell dead at my feet. I did not 
dare to linger and fled over the rocks until I found my 
other children, one of whom was the wife of Kevork, 
my son-in-law, who had just been murdered. The next 
day we turned back to bury the body of my daughter. 
We did not dare to go further then, as there were many 
soldiers and Kurds around. Twenty days later I re- 
turned and buried the remains of my husband and 
son-in-law. While I was hiding among the rocks 
I saw soldiers barbarously kill a woman, removing 
the yet unborn child and thrusting it through with a 
bayonet." 

What she saw and endured during those weary days 
of wandering would fill many pages. At length all the 



sassotjn. 339 

surviving members of the family reached Shadald, a 
district near Moush. 

One woman's husband disappeared at the time of the 
massacre. She, with her husband, brother, and his son, 
were hiding in the mountains when soldiers murdered 
her brother in-law, and his son-in-law, and his son in a 
most brutal manner. She was very near them, hidden 
behind some rocks, but they did not discover her, and 
the next day she joined a company of seven villagers, 
two women, three girls, and two boys, with whom she 
remained hiding among rocks and thickets. They were 
soon discovered by Kurds. Two soldiers took her 
away from her companions and told her she must adopt 
the Mohammedan faith, and that if she refused they 
would take her life then and there. She finally re- 
plied, " if you wish to kill me I am helpless, but I can- 
not commit the awful sin of denying Christ." They 
took her with them for several miles, sometimes per- 
suading, sometimes threatening her, till they were met 
by a company of Kurds, among whom was a woman 
who begged the soldiers to let the young woman go. 
This they did. 

A woman from Somal said : " I am a member of a 
priest's family ; my husband was his brother's son ; I 
went with the family to surrender at Galigozan ; the 
priest, my husband, and his two brothers were all 
cruelly murdered and thrown into the death-pit at 
Galigozan which the soldiers had dug. We were sepa- 
rated from our husbands and brothers, and soldiers took 
us to a church about half an hour away from the camp. 
There we were kept all night. In the morning soldiers 
came to us and said : ' Come to camp and give your 
word that you will accept Islam.' We cried out, 



340 SASSOUN. 

' Never ! "We cannot do that great sin.' They replied, 
' If you do not, we will do to you as we did to your 
husbands and sons last night.' This was the first inti- 
mation we had of the awful massacre that had taken 
place the night before." 

Such are some of the causes that impelled these 
people to appeal to the Christian world for protection 
and redress. The incidents mentioned were only a few 
among thousands of similar experiences, which showed 
how loyally the Christian peasants of Armenia laid 
down their lives rather than betray their Master by ac- 
cepting the faith of Islam. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE REIGN OF TERROR — TREBIZOND AND ERZEROUM. 

The Mohammedan populace in all the large cities of 
Asia Minor were deliberately inflamed against the Ar- 
menians by lying rumors of intended attacks on the 
mosques. Soon there was an outbreak at Constanti- 
nople in which nearly two hundred Armenians were 
killed by the " Softas " (Moslem students), and by the 
police. 

This was followed by a terrific outburst of fanaticism 
all over the Sultan's dominions, the Kurdish Hamidieh 
were brought into requisition, and such scenes of mas- 
sacre ensued as have not been paralleled since the days 
of Tamerlane. 

Through all the vilayets of Armenia ran the red tide 
of blood. In Trebizond, Erzeroum, Erzinghan and hun- 
dreds of other cities and villages the Christians were 
crushed like grapes during the vintage. In this work 
of destruction the Kurds may have been the leaders, 
but the Turkish soldiers and civilians did their full 
share. 

For a week prior to the outbreak on October 8, there 
was great excitement in Trebizond, and the consuls 
called in a body upon the Vali, and urged him to 
arrest those who were exciting the populace to deeds 
of violence. Matters apparently quieted down for 
a few days, when, suddenly, like a clap of thunder 
in a clear sky, the assault began. Unsuspecting 

(341) 



342 TKEBIZOND AND ERZEROUM. 

people walking along the streets were shot ruthlessly 
down. Men standing or sitting quietly at their shop 
doors were instantly dropped with a bullet through 
their heads or hearts. The aim was deadly, and there 
were no wounded men. Some were slashed witli 
swords until life was extinct. They passed through 
the quarters where only old men. women and children 
remained, killing the men and large boys, generally per- 
mitting the women and younger children to live. For five 
hours this horrid work of inhuman butchery went on ; 
the cracking of musketry, sometimes like a volley from 
a platoon of soldiers, but more often single shots from 
near and distant points, the crashing in of doors, and 
the thud, thud of sword blows resounded on the ear. 
Then the sound of musketry died away, and the work 
of looting began. Every shop of an Armenian in the 
market was gutted, and the victors in this cowardly and 
brutal war glutted themselves with the spoils. For 
hours bales of broadcloth, cotton goods, and every con- 
ceivable kind of merchandise passed along without 
molestation to the houses of the spoilers. The inten- 
tion evidently was to impoverish, and as near as pos- 
sible, to blot out the Armenians of this town. So far 
as appearances went the police and soldiers distinctly 
aided in this savage work. They mingled with the 
armed men and, so far as could be seen, made not the 
least effort to check them. To any found with arms no 
quarter was given, but large numbers were shot down 
without any demand to surrender. One poor fellow 
when called on to surrender thought he was called on 
to give up his religion, and when he refused he was 
hacked to pieces in the presence of his wife and chil- 
dren. Not one of the perpetrators of these outrages 



TKEBIZOND AND ERZEROUM. 345 

was arrested or disarmed, but all moved about with the 
-utmost freedom to accomplish their nefarious purposes. 
On the other hand many of the Armenians were thrown 
into prison. 

The frantic mob, seething and surging in the streets 
of the cities, swept down upon the defenceless Arme- 
nians, plundered their shops, gutted their houses, then 
joked and jested with the terrified victims, as cats play 
with mice. As rapid whirling motion produces appar- 
ent rest, so the wild frenzy of those fierce fanatic 
crowds resulted in a condition of seeming calmness, 
composure, and gentleness which, taken in connection 
with the unutterable brutality of their acts, was of a 
nature to freeze men's blood with horror. In many 
cases they almost caressed their victims, and actually 
encouraged them to hope, while preparing the instru- 
ments of slaughter. 

The French mob during the Terror were men — nay, 
angels of mercy — compared with these Turks. Those 
were not insensible to compassion ; in these every in- 
stinct of humanity seemed atrophied or dead. On the 
first day of the massacre, an Armenian was coming out 
of a baker's shop, where he had been purchasing bread 
for his sick wife and family, when he was surprised by 
the raging crowd. Fascinated with terror, he stood 
still, was seized, and dashed to the ground. He pleaded 
piteously for mercy and pardon, and they quietly prom- 
ised it; and so grim and dry was the humor of this 
crowd that the trembling wretch took their promise 
seriously and offered them his heartfelt thanks. In 
truth they were only joking. When they were ready 
to be serious they tied the man's feet together, and 
taunted him, but at first with the assumed gentleness 
20 



346 TREBIZOND AND ERZEROUM. 

that might well be mistaken for the harbinger of mercy. 
Then they cut off one of his hands, slapped his face 
with the bloody wrist, and placed it between his quiver- 
ing lips. Soon afterwards they chopped off the other 
hand and inquired whether he would like pen and paper 
to write to his wife. Others requested him to make the 
sign of the cross with his stumps or his feet while he 
still possessed them, while others desired him to shout 
louder so that his God might hear his cries for help. 
One of the most active members of the crowd then 
stepped forward and tore the man's ears from his head, 
after which he put them between the man's lips and 
then flung them in his face. 

" That effendi's mouth deserves to be punished for 
refusing such a choice morsel," exclaimed a voice in the 
crowd, whereupon somebody stepped forward, knocked 
out some of his teeth and proceeded to cut out his 
tongue. " He will never blaspheme again," a pious 
Moslem jocosely remarked. Thereupon a dagger was 
placed under one of his eyes which was scooped clean 
out of its socket. The hideous contortions of the 
man's discolored face, the quick convulsions of his 
quivering body and the sight of the ebbing blood turn- 
ing the dry dust to gory mud, literally intoxicated 
these furious fanatics, who having gouged out the other 
eye and chopped off his feet hit upon some other ex- 
cruciating tortures before cutting his throat and send- 
ing his soul to " damnation " as they expressed it. 
These other ingenious, pain-sharpening devices, how- 
ever, were such as do not lend themselves to descriptions. 

More than one thousand people perished in Trebizond 
under similar tortures who were not more mercifully 
shot down at once — while many Armenian women were 



TREBIZOND AND ERZEROUM. 347 

murdered or kidnapped, and most of the Armenian 
houses were burned to the ground; the survivors of the 
massacres being driven to the hills and woods to suf- 
fer slow starvation. 

Equally sad was the fate of the Christians of Bai- 
bnrt whose tragic taking off was related in a letter ad- 
dressed by the survivors to the Armenian Patriarch at 
Constantinople. After giving a partial list of the slain, 
the writers stated : " When the massacres and plunder- 
ing began, on account of the prevailing terror and in- 
security, the people were compelled to close all the 
churches, shops and schools, and take refuge in the 
houses. Letters were sent from our Prelate to the 
commandant of the Fourth Army Corps at Erzeroum, 
and to the Armenian Prelate at Erzeroum asking as- 
sistance ; but all our prayers remained unanswered. 
After the massacres the Turks advised us indirectly 
that the order was secretly given from the Imperial 
Palace and was irrevocable ! 

" The frantic Turkish mob, assisted by regular troops 
suddenly fell upon the innocent and unarmed Ar- 
menians. The bloody work began at four o'clock A. 
M., and lasted until late in the evening. Besides 
murdering our people, the mob plundered and fired 
the Armenian dwellings and stores, taking care that 
the Greeks should not be molested. On that frightful 
day the Armenian community was almost annihilated. 

" Strong men, youths and women, and even babies 
in the cradles and unborn children were butchered with 
most awful savagery. Infants were stuck on bayonets 
and exposed to the agonized view of their helpless and 
frantic mothers. Young brides and girls were sub- 
jected to a fate far worse than death. No resistance 



348 TJREBIZOND AND E11ZER0UM. 

was possible on the part of the Armenians. All the 
native teachers with a single exception were murdered 
with most cruel tortures. Baiburt became a slaughter 
house. Torrents of .blood began to flow. The streets 
and bazaars were filled with dead bodies. On the fol- 
lowing day the Turks did all in the their power to con- 
ceal the bodies of those who had been pierced by bay- 
onets. Similar scenes were enacted in all the surround- 
ing villages. ' 

" Mourning and lamentation prevail throughout Ar- 
menia. The churches are closed ; no more can the 
sound of worshippers be heard. The pealing of the 
bells is silent. We have no more teachers to teach the 
remnant of Armenians who still live. Rich and poor 
alike have perished, and the survivors are in the direst 
indigence. No bread, no covering for their nakedness ; 
they are shivering in the cold. Baiburt, until lately 
so generous to help others, is now helpless, and in need 
of moral and material assistance. Unless such assis- 
tance is soon received, nobody can live. 

" After the massacres the government began to ar- 
rest the remaining Armenians who had escaped the 
slaughter. We hear that in the prisons the tortures 
have reached an extreme point of frightful cruelty. 
Thus the survivors of the massacre are now dying daily. 
Every moment we have the horrors of death." 

Turkish duplicity was fertile in its resources. Many 
documents were forwarded to the Grand Vizier at Con- 
stantinople from scenes of massacres, purporting to be 
signed by Armenian nobles, the signatures having been 
obtained by intimidation. One of the most remarkable 
was from Bitlis, and bore the signatures of thirty-one 
Armenian nobles. It proceeds to state that "some 



TREBIZOND AND ERZEROUM. 349 

of our co-religionists have been deceived by instigators 
coming from certain parts, and have been the cause 
of deplorable events and have committed crimes con- 
trary to the wishes of his Imperial Majesty, and 
against the government of his Imperial Majesty — a 
government to be whose subject had been for six hun- 
dred years a title of glory to us, and through whose 
benevolence we were enjoying religious liberty and 
a self-government, the like of which cannot be found 
under any administration. This being so there re- 
mains no hope for us but the mercy of our august 
sovereign, who deigns to accept all classes of his sub- 
jects with a benevolence worthy of the greatest of mon- 
archs. 

" On the other hand, everlasting happiness for us 
consists in preserving our national existence in the 
shadow of the imperial government. We dare to com- 
mend ourselves to the humanity and benevolence of our 
sovereign, who is an object of admiration for the whole 
world, and we implore his pardon, taking refuge in that 
heavenly power bestowed upon him for the pardon of 
criminals." 

Such is an example of similar documents that were 
drawn up by local Turkish officials, in fulsome praise 
of the Porte's humanity, and which the leading Arme- 
nians were compelled to sign, under threats of impris- 
onment and 'torture. These spurious testimonials, like 
the manufactured reports of outrages by Armenians, 
were designed to influence public opinion in Turkey's 
favor. 

Even the Porte, accustomed to distort facts, found 
itself no longer able to conceal from the world the 
pitiable condition of the Armenians. 



350 TREBIZOND AND ERZEROUM. 

Iii Erzeroum, where a large tract of country, from 
the lofty mountains of Devi Boyen to the Black Sea 
shore was laid waste and completely purged of Arme- 
nians, similar scenes were enacted. The vilayet of Van, 
the town of Hassankaleh, and numerous other places 
were deluged with blood, and polluted with unbridled 
lust. A man in Erzeroum, hearing the tumult, and 
fearing for his children, who were playing in the street, 
went out to seek and save them. He was borne down 
upon by the mob. He pleaded for his life, protesting 
that he had alwaj^s lived in peace with his Moslem 
neighbors, and sincerely loved them. The statement 
may have represented a fact, or it may have been but a 
plea for pity. The ringleader, however, told him that 
that was the proper spirit, and would be condignly re- 
warded. The man was then stripped, and a chunk of 
his flesh cut out of his body, and jestingly offered for 
sale : " Good fresh meat, and dirt cheap," exclaimed 
some of the crowd. "Who'll buy fine dogs' meat?" 
echoed the amused bystanders. The writhing wretch 
uttered piercing screams as some of the mob, who had 
just come from rifling the shops, opened a bottle, and 
poured vinegar or some acid into the gaping wound. 
He called on God and man to end his agonies. But 
they had only begun. Soon, afterwards, two little boys 
came up, the elder crying, " Hairik, Hairik, (Father, 
father,) save me ! See what they've done to me ! " and 
pointed to his head, from which the blood was stream- 
ing over his handsome face, and down his neck. The 
younger brother — a child of about three — was playing 
with a wooden toy. The agonizing man was silent for 
a second and then, glancing at these, his children, 
made a frantic but vain effort to snatch a dagger from 



TREBIZOND AND ERZEROUM. 351 

a Turk by his side. This was the signal for the re- 
newal of his torments. The bleeding boy was finally 
dashed with violence against the dying father, who be- 
gan to lose strength and consciousness, and the two 
were then pounded to death where they lay. The 
younger child sat near, dabbling his wooden toy in the 
blood of his father and brother, and looking up, now 
through smiles at the prettily-dressed Kurds, and now 
through tears at the dust-begrimed thing that had 
lately been his father. A slash of a sabre wound up 
his short experience of God's world, and the crowd 
turned its attention to others. 

In Erzeroum about seven hundred houses and about 
fifteen thousand shops were plundered. The number 
of killed was never known, for there were many 
strangers in the city. The condition of the people was 
about as bad as that of the Sassoun people after the 
massacre. Between two thousand and three thousand 
people were destitute of fuel, bedding and food, and the 
majority had only the clothes they had on their backs. 

The Government made a show of distributing the 
plunder collected from the barracks to the rightful own- 
ers, but the attempt was farcical. 

The Turks declared that the Armenians made an at- 
tack on the Government House, and so the affair be- 
gun. This declaration was absolutely without foun- 
dation. There was no attack even contemplated by 
Armenians. The first man shot was an aged priest, 
who was at the Government House to present a com- 
plaint to the Governor. He had been robbed in his 
own house in the village of the Tivnig, and only got 
off with his life by giving a note for $500 for five days. 
He was an inoffensive old man, and would be the last 



352. TREBIZOND AND ERZEROUM. 

man in the world to offer an attack. The attack was 
made by Moslems after leaving the mosques after the 
noon hour of prayer, and it was simultaneous all over 
the city. 

A letter from Erzeroum said: "It is almost im- 
possible for me to describe that which I have seen and 
heard. In Gurum everything which hellish ingenuity 
can devise has been done by the Turkish soldiers and 
Bashi-bazouks. All the Armenian villages are in ashes, 
and the smoke which is rising from the ruined houses 
gives the appearance of a volcanic eruption. Along the 
road between Trebizond and Erzeroum, at every step, 
mutilated bodies are lying. We are unable to leave 
our homes to bury the dead ; unable to sleep. The 
whole city has taken on the aspect of a wild desert 
strewn with corpses. Hundreds of thousands of families 
are compelled to wander in rags, begging for their living. 
The same fate has befallen a few of the Europeans." 

The Erzeroum massacre started at the office of the 
Vali in the government building. An Armenian priest 
of Tevnik was in the building endeavoring to gain an 
audience with the Vali, when he was shot down by 
Turkish murderers. Then followed a horrible saturna- 
lia of carnage, during which over one thousand Chris- 
tians were slaughtered. After the butchery, the dead 
victims were dragged by the neck and heels into the 
cemetery and cast into a long, deep trench, not unlike 
the death pit of Geliguzan — the murdered fathers, 
mothers and sweet, innocent babes, all calm and peace- 
ful in the sleep of death, flung down like carrion. Noth- 
ing more horrible or more pathetic could be imagined 
than that scene at the cemetery two days after the 
massacre. The spaces between the poor dead bodies 



TEEB1Z0ND AND ERZEEOUM. 353 

were filled with the skulls and thigh-bones that had 
been taken by the sacrilegious Moslems from the old, 
upturned graves and then all were covered up together 
out of sight. The survivors dared not even express 
their grief. 

Not less shocking was the news that came from 
Kaisarieh in that part of Asiatic Turkey known as 
Cappadocia, where a frightful massacre of Christians 
took place, accompanied by the outraging of women 
and the looting of the shops and houses. This was 
done in obedience to Orders from Constantinople. Over 
one thousand were killed and the fury of the Kurds, 
not satiated with slaughter, vented itself in the muti- 
lation of the inanimate bodies. 

An extract from a paper on "The condition of Ar- 
menia " by E. J. Dillon will fitly close this chapter. 

'* The stories told of these Koordish Hamidieh of- 
ficers in general, and of one of them, named Mostigo, 
in particular, seemed so wildly improbable, that I was 
at great pains to verify them. Learning that this par- 
ticular Fra Diavolo had been arrested and was care- 
fully guarded as a dangerous criminal in the prison of 
Erzeroum, where he would probably be hanged, I de- 
termined to obtain, if possible, an interview with him, 
and learn the truth from his own lips. My first attempt 
ended in failure ; Mostigo being a desperate murderer, 
who had once before escaped from jail, was subjected 
to special restrictions, and if I had carried out my 
original plan of visiting him in disguise, the probabil- 
ity is that I should not have returned alive. After 
about three weeks' tedious and roundabout negotia- 
tions, I succeeded in gaining the gaoler's ear, having 
first replenished his purse. I next won over the brig- 



354 TREBIZOND AND ERZEROUM. 

and himself, and the upshot of my endeavors was an 
arrangement that Mostigo was to be allowed to leave 
the prison secretly, and at night, to spend six hours 
in my room, and • then to be re-conducted to his dun- 
geon. 

" When the appointed day arrived the gaoler repudi- 
ated his part of the contract, on the ground that Mos- 
tigo, aware that his life was forfeited, would probably 
give the prison a wide berth if allowed to leave its 
precincts. After some further negotiations, however, 
I agreed to give two hostages for his return, one of 
them a brother Koord, whose life the brigand's notions 
of honor would not allow him to sacrifice for the chance 
of saving his own. At last he came to me one evening, 
walking over the roofs, lest the police permanently 
stationed at my door should espy him. I kept him all 
night, showed him to two of the most respectable 
Europeans in Erzeroum, and, lest any doubt should be 
thrown on my story, had myself photographed with 
him next morning. 

The tale unfolded by that Koordish noble constitutes 
a most admirable commentary upon Turkish regime in 
Armenia. This is not the place to give it in full. One 
or two short extracts must suffice. 

" ' Now, Mostigo, I desire to hear from your own lips 
and to write down some of your wonderful deeds. I 
want to make them known to the "hat-wearers."' 
(Europeans). 

" 'Even so. Announce them to the Twelve Powers.' 
(The whole universe). 

"There were evidently no misgivings about moral 
consequences; no fears of judicial punishment. And 
yet retribution was at hand ; Mostigo was said to be 



TREBIZOND AND ERZEROUM. 355 

doomed to death. Desirous of clearing up this point, 
I went on : 

" ' I am sorry to find that you are living in prison. 
Have you been long there ? ' 

*" ' I, too, am sorry. Five months, but it seems an 
age.' 

" ' These Armenians are to blame, I suppose ? ' 

" « Yes.' 

" ' You wiped out too many of them, carried off their 
women, burned their villages and made it generally hot 
for them, I am told.' 

" (Scornfully). ' That has nothing to do with my im- 
prisonment. I shall not be punished for plundering 
Armenians. We all do that. I seldom killed, except 
when they resisted. But the Armenians betrayed me 
and I was caught. That's what I mean. But if I be 
hanged it will be for attacking and robbing the Turkish 
post and violating the wife of a Turkish Colonel who 
is now here in Erzeroum. But not for Armenians! 
Who are they that I should suffer for them ? ' 

After he had narrated several adventures of his, in 
the course of which he dishonored Christian woman, 
killed Armenian villagers, robbed the post and escaped 
from prison, he went on to say : 

" ' We did great deeds after that : deeds that would 
astonish the Twelve Powers to hear told. We attacked 
villages, killed people who would have killed us, gutted 
houses, taking money, carpets, sheep and women, and 
robbed travelers. . . . Daring and great were our 
deeds, and the mouths of men were full of them." 

"Having heard the story of many of these 'great 
deeds,' in some of which fifty persons met their death, 
I asked : 



356 TREBIZOND AND ERZEROUM. 

" ' Do the Armenians ever offer yon resistance when 
you take their cattle and their women?' 

"'Not often. They cannot. They have no arms, 
and they know that even if they could kill a few of us 
it would do them no good, for other Koords would 
come and take vengeance ; but when we kill them no 
one's eyes grow large with rage. The Turks hate 
them, and we do not. We only want money and spoil, 
and some Koords also want their lands, but the Turks 
want their lives. A few months ago I attacked the 
Armenian village of Kara Kipriu and drove off all the 
sheep in the place. I did not leave one. behind. The 
villagers, in despair, did follow us that time and fire 
some shots at us, but it was nothing to speak of. We 
drove the sheep towards Erzeroum to sell them there. 
But on the way we had a fight near the Armenian 
village of Sheme. The peasants knew we had lifted 
the sheep from their own people, and they attacked us. 
We were only five Koords and they were many — the 
whole village was up against us. Two of my men — 
rayahs* only — were killed. We killed fifteen Ar- 
menians. They succeeded in capturing forty of the 
sheep. The remainder we held and sold in Erzeroum.' 

" ' Did you kill many Armenians generally ? ' 

" ' Yes. We did not wish to do so. We only want 
booty, not lives. Lives are of no use to us. But we 
had to drive bullets through people at times to keep 
them quiet ; that is, if they resisted.' 

" ' Did you often use your daggers ? ' 

*The Koords are divided into Torens or nobles, who lead in war time, and 
possess and enjoy in peace ; and Rayahs, who sacrifice their lives for their 

lords in all raids and fends, and are wholly dependent on them at all times. 
A rayah's life may be taken by a toren with almost the same impunity as a 
Christian's. 



TREBIZOND AND ERZEEOUM. 357 

*"No; generally our rifles. We must live. In 
autumn we manage to get as much corn as we need for 
the winter, and money besides. We have cattle, but 
we take no care of it. We give it to the Armenians to 
look after and feed.'' 

'"But if they refuse?' 

"' Well, we burn their hay, their corn, their houses, 
and we drive off their sheep, so they do not refuse. 
We take back our cattle in spring, and the Armenians 
must return the same number that they received.' 

"' But if the cattle disease should carry them off?' 

"'That is the Armenians' affair. They must return 
us what we gave them, or an equal number. And they 
know it. We cannot bear the loss. Why should not 
thejr? Nearly all our sheep come from them.' 

" After having listened to scores of stories of his 
expeditions, murders, rapes, &c, &c, I again asked : 
" Can you tell me some more of your daring deeds, 
Mostigo, for the ears of the Twelve Powers? ' to which 
I received this characteristic reply: 

'"Once the wolf was asked: Tell us something 
about the sheep you devoured ? and he said : I ate 
thousands of sheep, which of them are you talking 
about ? Even so it is with my deeds. If I spoke and 
you wrote for two days, much would still remain un- 
told.' 

" This brigand is a Koord, and the name of the Koords 
is legion. Ex uno disce omnes. And yet the Koords 
have shown themselves to be the most humane of all 
the persecutors of the Armenians. Needing money, 
this man robbed ; desirous of pleasure he dishonored 
women and girls ; defending his booty, he killed men 
and women, and during it all he felt absolutely certain 



358 TREB1Z0ND AND ERZEROUM. 

of impunity, so long as his victims were Armenians. 
Is there no law then ? one is tempted to ask. There 
is, and a very good law for that corner of the globe 
were it only administered ; for the moment he robbed 
the Imperial post and dishonored a Turkish woman, he 
was found worthy of death. 

" Laws, reforms and constitutions therefore, were they 
drawn up by the wisest and most experienced legisla- 
tors and statesmen of the world, will not be worth the 
paper they are written on so long as the Turks are al- 
lowed to administer them without control." 

* * * " Justice in all its aspects is rigorously denied 
to the Armenian. The mere fact that he dares to in- 
voke it as plaintiff or prosecutor against a Koord or a 
Turk is always sufficient to metamorphose him into a 
defendant or a criminal, generally into both, whereupon 
he is invariably thrown into prison. In such cases the 
prison is intended to be no more than the halfway-house 
between relative comfort and absolute miser}' - , the in- 
mates being destined to be stripped of all they possess 
and then turned adrift. But what the prison really is 
cannot be made sufficiently clear in words. If the old 
English Star Chamber, the Spanish Inquisition, a 
Chinese opium den, the ward of a yellow fever hospital, 
and a nook in the lowest depths of Dante's Hell be 
conceived as blended and merged into one, the result- 
ing picture will somewhat resemble a bad Turkish 
prison. Filth, stench, disease, deformity, pain in forms 
and degrees inconceivable in Europe, constitute the 
physical characteristics: the psychological include the 
blank despair that is final, fiendish, fierce malignity, 
hellish delight in human suffering, stoic self-sacrifice in 
the cultivation of loathsome vices, stark madness rag- 



TREBIZOND AND ERZEROUM. 359 

ing in the moral nature only^ — the whole incarnated in 
grotesque beings whose resemblance to man is a living 
blasphemy against the Deity. In these noisome dun- 
geons, cries of exquisite suffering and shouts of unnat- 
ural delight continually commingle ; ribald songs are 
sung to the accompaniment of heartrending groans ; 
meanwhile the breath is passing away from bodies which 
had long before been soulless, and are unwept save by 
the clammy walls whereon the vapor of unimagined 
agonies and foul disease condenses into big drops and 
runs down in driblets to the reeking ground. Truly it 
is a horrid nightmare quickened into life." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE REIGN OF TERROR — VAN AND MOUSH. 

Much earnest and faithful missionary work had been 
done in the cities and towns of the various Armenian 
provinces, before the storm of desolation swept over 
them. Evangelistic, educational and medical lines had 
been followed and now the missionaries, who had been 
laboring in a land where crops had failed and where the 
inhabitants were leaving their homes to escape starva- 
tion, were to face massacre, pillage and horrors, such as 
the world hnd not beheld for centuries. No words of 
praise are adequate to tell the story of the devotion 
which kept them at their posts, or of the succor they 
extended to the victims of the Sultan's hate. 

A vivid picture of the desolation that everywhere 
prevailed, was given by one who was engaged in the 
work of distributing relief money in July, 1895. 

" Semal and Shenig are situated in a continuous, 
moderately wide valley, with a little reach of rolling 
land between the encircling mountains where about half 
the hill fields are growing green with a sort of millet 
that matures in a few weeks and which the sufferers 
were persuaded to come and sow, with oxen loaned by 
the poor, but generous villagers of the Moush plain. 
These few fields and few people at work upon them, 
were all there was to relieve the sad desolation which 
reigned over all. Buildings, once the homes of happy 
and prosperous countrymen, now presented only ruined 
(360) 



VAN AND MOUSH. 363 

walls with not a chip to show they had ever roofs to 
cover them, save a few, of which a little corner was 
rudely covered last fall, so that the wretched owners 
could find imperfect shelter during last winter. The 
torch of the incendiary soldiers had consumed every 
vestige of wood from all these scattered homes. The 
church at the central hamlet, where Der Hohannes 
(whose eyes were bored out and his throat pierced, 
while yet alive, by the cruel soldiers), used to officiate, 
being of stone, was not consumed, being the only roofed 
building in all the valley, after that flood of carnage 
had swept past. Near this church we pitched our tent, 
and began to study the situation. 

"Beneath our eye, in these two villages, had already 
gathered over one thousand people, whom it was our 
work to try and set upon their feet again, so that they 
could start once more on the uphill road towards pros- 
perity. Could a community be conceived of more com- 
pletely prostrated ? The sheep and cattle, which com- 
posed their wealth, in the hands of Kurds, as also 
their few simple household belongings, cooking vessels, 
clothing, bedding, etc., and whatever money they may 
have managed to hoard. Those who fled with their 
lives found themselves nearly as destitute of all that 
makes life comfortable as the day they were born. 

English liberality has already spent five thousand 
dollars, and the authorities gave reluctant consent to 
our coming up to distribute it. We located here at 
Semal, while the Turkish committee has its headquar- 
ters at Shenig, half an hour distant. It was evident 
that the thing to be first accomplished was the erection 
of houses, and only a few weeks remained in which it 
would be accomplished, so we set about persuading the 
21 



364 VAN AND MOUSH. 

people to begin preparing their walls for the timbers 
the government had promised them. 

" Of the survivors of the massacre (of 1894), five thou- 
sand have already gathered to try and reestablish their 
old homes, while possibly another eleven hundred may 
still be scattered over the world. It is impossible as 
yet to give the exact number of the slaughtered, but it 
will probably be not far from 4,000. We feel that un- 
less a different status from the present can be secured 
to distribute anything to these people beyond dail} r 
food, is simply to run the risk of its falling into the 
hands of the Kurds. We have distributed a good 
many tools, with which the people are gathering hay, in 
hope of having some animal to eat it during the winter. 
We should be glad to furnish them with tools for lay- 
ing up the walls of their houses, and even pay the 
wages of masons to come and help them. It is all we 
can do now to prevent the people from fleeing again to 
the plain, when all their crops would go for naught." 

Near Harpoot eleven villages were compelled to accept 
Mohammedanism, and also near Van the entire popu- 
lation of two villages were forced to change their reli- 
gion. Eight villages near Van were entirely depopu- 
lated. Most of the inhabitants were killed, and those 
who survived escaped to the snow-covered mountains, 
where they wandered with their children, naked and 
starving. The men who were forced to accept Moham- 
medanism were compelled to take their own sisters-in- 
law, whose husbands have been killed, to wife — a prac- 
tice most horrible to the Christians, who hated polyg- 
amy. They were also compelled to plunder and kill 
their Armenian brethren to show that their conversion 
to Mohammedanism was genuine. The young maidens 



VAN AND MOUSH. 365 

of these villages were carried into the Pasha's harem. 
The Kurds attacked the same villages over and over to 
make their work of destruction complete, and yet the 
Sultan ordered his ambassador in Washington to deny 
that there were any forcible conversions to Islam. 

All accounts received of the hardships endured by 
the Armenians were distressing in the extreme. Many 
of the refugees, weakened by want and exposure, were 
dying. Fully one thousand Armenian families in the 
province of Van alone were in want of food. A ma- 
jority of these families lived on roots and herbs, the 
few fortunate ones had bread made of clover seed, lin- 
seed or flax, mixed with grass and roots. In the dis- 
trict of Moks, three-fourths of the villagers left their 
homes and were in danger of starving. In Shadakh, 
two-thirds of the population were homeless wanderers. 
Beggars swarmed in the streets of Van, but. so general 
was the poverty that little help could be afforded. So 
widespread was the want that many declared, in bitter- 
ness of heart, " there is no food in all the length and 
breadth of Armenia " — which was long ago the Garden 
of Eden. Many poor were fed daily at the American 
mission in Van. 

America and Armenia both owe more than words 
can ever express to the energy, devotion and abundant 
generosity that sent Mr. W. W. Howard, in 1895, to 
investigate the situation in Armenia. In a later chap- 
ter the story of the great relief work will be told, 
meanwhile Mr. Howard will tell his story. " I have 
just returned from the interior of the devastated region 
of Armenia and the English language is impotent to 
produce a true picture of the actual condition of that 
distressed country, and a just regard for the conven- 



366 VAN AND MOUSH. 

tionalities of civilized speech will not permit that the 
whole truth be told. The refined Christian mind can 
understand wickedness and iniquity up to a certain 
point, but beyond that point, it either refuses to be- 
lieve, or it is incapable of receiving additional impres- 
sions. 

" There are in Armenia at the present moment at least 
two hundred thousand persons fighting a death fight 
with famine I In the one province of Van, which is 
the center of Armenia, there are fully one hundred 
thousand persons, out of a total Armenian population 
of one hundred and forty-five thousand, in actual want 
of food. 

" Many have already died of starvation, and thousands 
of villagers are barely keeping soul and body together 
by eating roots and herbs and sort of bread made of 
clover seed, flax or linseed meal, mixed with edible 
grass. I have brought to peaceful, prosperous America 
specimen loaves of this hunger-bread. Starving vil- 
lagers, reduced to the verge of despair, are crowding 
into the cities to beg for food and work. Three thou- 
sand unwilling beggars walk the streets of the city of 
Van, like spectres of famine, asking bread from door 
to door, who six months ago were comparatively pros- 
perous. Others, too proud to beg, but in as desperate 
condition, crouch in their ruined homes, waiting for a 
merciful death to end their sufferings. 

" These are not hallucinations on my part, but are 
things which I myself have lately seen with my own 
eyes. Unless these wretched people receive immediate 
help, they will perish of starvation. They must have 
food and clothing or they cannot possibly survive the 
winter. They are now living on roots and herbs and 



VAN AND MOUSH. 367 

edible grass, together with this terrible hunger-bread, 
the mere odor of which is enough to make a strong 
man shudder; but when winter begins, in October, 
the supply of edible grass and roots and herbs will be 
cut off. What will become of them then ? 

"The Armenians have no wheat, and no money with 
which to buy food. The Kurds and the Turks have 
taken everything, and the Armenians have nothing. 

" The Armenians planted only half a crop this year, 
owing to the persecutions and exactions which beset 
them on all sides. In the early summer, when the 
young grain was green, the Kurds pastured their 
buffalos and their cattle in the growing wheat. Much 
of the crop was thus destroyed. Later, when that 
which remained of the wheat was ready for the har- 
vest, the Kurds came down, cut off the heads of the 
ripened grain, and left the worthless stubble for the 
Armenians to live upon during the long and bitter win- 
ter. Even a persecuted Armenian cannot hope to 
maintain his family on wheat straw. 

"Now, we have this condition at the present moment 
in Armenia : The crop planted this year was entirely 
inadequate to the needs of the population, and when 
the Kurds got through pasturing their cattle in the 
growing fields they harvested the ripened grain for 
their own use, leaving onty dry grass for the Armenians. 
The systematic persecutions of the people, the exactions 
of the tax-gatherers, and the repeated robberies by the 
Kurds have left the Armenians absolutely penniless 
and foodless. Utterly unable to maintain life in their 
nearly ruined and wasted villages, the country people 
are wandering about from place to place, and crowding 
into the cities. There is no work for them to be had, 



368 VAN AND MOUSH. 

and no chance of earning enough to keep starvation at 
bay. 

" It is for the youngest Christian nation on earth to 
say whether the oldest shall perish and be no more, 
and whether the followers of Mohammed shall be the 
sole inhabitants of that land which, in the beginning of 
all things, was the Garden of Eden. If we turn a deaf 
ear now to the supplications of the starving thousands 
of fellow-Christians in Eastern Turkey, the coming of 
spring will see the troublous Armenian question for- 
ever at rest. There will be no more Armenian ques- 
tion, for there ma}' be no more Armenians. 

" If, on the contrary, the practical Christians of our 
own land desire to assist in preserving this ancient 
Christian race in the land in which it took descent 
from the grandson of Noah, the way is clear. A little 
help extended now, will not only save the lives of 
those who are dropping dead of hunger from day 
to day, but will provide work during the coming 
winter. 

" I have necessarily been brief, and have dwelt entirely 
upon the starvation in Armenia, because it is the most 
urgent feature of the situation. I have not touched 
upon the Sassoun massacre, because as the Grand 
Vizier of Turkey truthfully says, ' that is an old 
story.' The victims of Sassoun were in many respects 
more fortunate than their fellows, for they had at least 
the privilege of dying quickly. The}*' escaped persecu- 
tion, torture, and starvation. There are very many 
hopeless creatures in Armenia to-day who would wel- 
come a second Sassoun as an easy release from the bur- 
den and shame of living. 

" As to the cause of the persecution which has brought 



VAN AND MOUSH. 369 

two hundred thousand human beings to the actual 
brink of starvation, there can be but one explanation. 
The Armenians are Christians. Should they become 
Mohammedans their troubles would vanish, and return 
no more. It is for the sake of Jesus Christ, the Son of 
God, that they are persecuted unto death." 

A resident of Moush confirmed all that has been 
stated regarding the widespread suffering and destitu- 
tion. He said : 

" After the departure of the Kurdish tribes, which 
had perpetrated the massacres of Sassoun, the surviv- 
ors left their hiding-places. One group of these people 
settled themselves on the plateaux, in the defiles, and 
in the forests of Sassoun, whilst the greater part emi- 
grated to Moush, whence they were soon scattered 
among the Armenian villages of the plain. The Ar- 
menians sheltered and fed these emigrants as long as 
they had the means ; but being themselves doubly tried 
by the want which reigns on all sides, and for the past 
two years and more, in the country, they soon found it 
impossible for them to supply the needs of these emi- 
grants. The latter were obliged to move away to the 
mountains, where they are finding their food from herbs 
and leaves, or else to beg in the villages, where they 
are hardly finding a morsel of bread." 

The Kurds took advantage of the sufferings of the 
people of Sassoun to carry on a trade in white people. 
A young Armenian woman of Sassoun, was sold as a 
slave by these nomads. Another was sold to an in- 
habitant of the village of Hadji-Osman-Bey, and taken 
to Diarbekir. A little boy and little girl were bought 
for one hundred and thirty piastres of a Kurd named 
Mehmed ; this amount included besides, the price of a 



370 VAN AND MOtJSH. 

donkey. There were other instances also of the same 
character. 

The following letter from the Duke of Westminster 
to the editor of an American paper, afforded new evi- 
dence of the widespread destitution in Armenia: 

" Sir: — There is an additional distressing phase con- 
nected with the sufferings of the Armenians conse- 
quent on the losses they have sustained at the hands of 
the Turks, which calls for consideration and assistance 
from those who are ever ready to relieve distress in 
whatever part of the world. Vice-Consul Shipley re- 
ports from Moush, that 'there is great distress, amount- 
ing in a great number of cases to abject destitution, 
among the fugitives from Sassoun, of which he and his 
colleagues have had many opportunities of convincing 
themselves from personal observation.' Mr. Hall ward, 
Her Majesty's Vice-Consul at Van, testifies that the need 
for relief is unquestioned ; that there is an enormous 
amount of destitution, and that there will certainly be 
more before next winter. 

" This applies, we are assured, to the province of 
Bitlis, and to a large extent to Erzeroum, where there 
are survivors of the Sassoun massacre — mostly women 
and children who have no one to provide for them — 
scattered about. A year ago these people were com- 
paratively prosperous and comfortable, but are now 
barefoot and in rags, begging their daily bread from 
those who are not much better off than themselves. 

" Consul Graves forwards a private letter describing 
the deplorable condition of the people at Talvorig : — 
' There are about eight hundred and fifty of these house- 
less wanderers now living in the woods and mountains, 
in caves and hollow trees, half naked, and some, indeed, 



VAN AND MOUSH. 371 

entirely without covering for their nakedness. Bread 
they have not tasted for months, and curdled milk they 
only dream of, living, as they do, upon greens and the 
leaves of trees. There are two varieties of greens 
which are preferred, but these are disappearing, as they 
wither at this season. Living on such food, they be- 
come sickly ; their skin has turned yellow, their 
strength is gone, their bodies are swollen, and fever is 
rife among them.' 

" In addition to these, there are thousands of refugees 
who, compelled by poverty and danger to abandon 
their village homes, have flocked into the towns where 
they hope to find personal safety and charity to keep 
them alive. 

" The Committee of the Armenian Relief Fund has 
already remitted £ 3,000 to Sir Philip Currie, Her Ma- 
jesty's Ambassador at Constantinople, for the distri- 
bution of food and clothing ill" the distressed districts, 
and further aid is very urgently required. 

Westminster." 
Grosvenor House, London, W., Sept. 20th, 1895. 

Probably the best known and most experienced of 
all the Americans who have served in the missionary 
field in Asia Minor is Rev. Cyrus Hamlin, D.D. the 
venerable founder of Roberts College, Constantinople. 
Dr. Hamlin, has a lifelong acquaintance with the Ar- 
menian question in its various phases, and is a strong 
champion of the right of this oldest Christian nation on 
earth to be permitted to live and worship in the faith 
of their fathers. Conversing on the subject, Dr. Ham- 
lin said : 

" The condition of affairs in that country has not 
been exaggerated in the printed reports. I have lately 



372 VAN AND MOUSH. 

finished reading the MS. of some two hundred letters 
from missionaries, a. very large part of them dealing 
with the oppressions and sufferings of the Armenians, 
which were of a most frightful character. The poor 
creatures must have help before the winter opens in 
earnest, or they will perish. An Armenian winter is 
usually very severe, the snow lying on the ground 
from four to six feet in depth and the cold being in- 
tense. 

" The whole civilized Christian world must help 
these people — they must be saved from death and as- 
sisted over the winter. They can look in no other di- 
rection for help, for there is no sympathy and assis- 
tance to be had from Turkey. Indeed, the policy of 
the Sultan's government is apparently dictated by a de- 
sire to efface the Armenian people altogether — at least 
those of them who will not accept Mohammed. When 
you talk sympathizing^ about these people, a Turk 
will say in surprise : ' Why do you speak in behalf of 
such worthless trash and try to save them ? They can 
save themselves — all they need do is to accept Islam 
and then they are safe and out of trouble.' 

" And so," continued Dr. Hamlin, " A Turk regards 
it as strange that an Armenian should refuse to pur- 
chase his life at the cost of his faith ; but there are 
some among them who take a different view. Some of 
the Turkish soldiers who shared in the terrible atroci- 
ties lately perpetrated on the Armenian Christians have 
been stricken by remorse afterward. One soldier, who 
had borne his part in several horrible butcheries, of 
women and children, was so troubled that he could not 
sleep. He had visions of his victims that ultimately 
drove him insane." 



VAN AND MOTTSH. 373 

Dr. Hamlin spoke in the highest terms of Miss 
Kimball and her relief work, in conjunction with the 
other missionaries at Van. " No one knew the needs 
of the suffering people better, or was better qualified 
to deal with the present very trying situation. It is 
the duty of the Christians of America to help them as 
far as we can help them. The Turks will embarrass 
the work if they can ; they wish these people to die. 
In the whole region of Sassoun — comprised of about one 
hundred villages — forty or fifty villages have been an- 
nihilated." A letter from Mr. Cole, a missionary who 
is employed in relief work, stated that he visited a vil- 
lage of one hundred and seventy-five houses, every one 
of which had been destroyed. The Turks would not 
even permit him to erect a shanty as a defence against 
the weather, lest some Armenian should get the use of it. 
They wished these people to die out of cold or starvation. 

England, whose official support of Turkey made it in 
large measure responsible for the wrongs and suffer- 
ings of the Armenians, now moved for reform in that 
unfortunate country. At the same time, the English 
people were helping the Armenians by contributions. 
On the occasion of opening a bazaar held at Chester, for 
the benefit of the Armenian sufferers, Mrs. Gladstone 
gave expression to the popular sentiment prevailing in 
England regarding Armenia's condition in these terms : 
" No words of mine are needed to describe the frightful 
need of help. You are all aware of the terrible details. 
I plead to-day in behalf of the poor sufferers — that we 
may be instrumental in allaying their sufferings. As 
my husband says, we cannot dictate to the government 
as to the time, but we pray that the Powers may soon 
take action to end Armenia's woes." 



374 VAN AND MOTJSH. 

But while this most blessed work of caring for these 
hunger-stricken, homeless and wretched Armenians was 
going on, the storm burst upon them in all its fury. 
The appetite of the Moslem had merely been whetted, 
not satiated. 

Following the massacres in Trebizond and Erzeroum 
all the villages about them were almost depopulated, 
the orders for the slaughter of the Christians, as the 
Moslem troops admit, having come from Constanti- 
nople. At Sivas the massacre was terrible, and a like 
horror occurred at Marash. The ungovernable fury of 
the Turks spared neither age or sex, and the brutalities 
practiced upon women and children could not be de- 
scribed. Bodies of little children, dead and mutilated, 
were found in the fields after the slaughter had ended. 
Large numbers of the victims of these atrocities died 
the death of martyrs. They fell in the Moslem war for 
the extermination of the religion of Jesus in Asia Minor. 

At Diarbekir, where the victims were numbered by 
thousands, there was abundant evidence that the mas- 
sacre was premeditated. It was claimed that the Ar- 
menians had attacked a Moslem mosque, whereas the 
facts, as afterwards disclosed, showed the Kurds and 
Turks to have been the sole and intentional aggressors. 
The massacre began on Friday, and continued on Sat- 
urday and Sunday with insatiable ferocity. 

Meanwhile, the story of what was taking place in the 
villages and hamlets of the different districts had not 
reached the public ear. When it came, it disclosed a 
tale of suffering and savagism that had scarcely a par- 
allel. Many hundreds of villages were literally swept 
out of existence. The story of one is the story of all: 
the Kurds, directed from higher sources, swooping 



VAN AND MOUSH. 375 

down, rounding up the cattle, slaying the strong men. 
outraging and abducting the women, and killing even 
the children, concluded the satanic work by burning; 
everything that would consume. In many places the 
Kurdish troops came equipped with empty sacks strapped 
to their saddles for the purpose of carrying off the plun- 
der. The Kurdish chiefs openly declared that they 
were ordered to slay the Christians and take the plun- 
der for their pay. 

Rev. John Wright, another missionary, wrote : " In 
one instance, the Kurds, after compelling a family to 
provide food for their horses and themselves, smothered 
a babe which was asleep in the cradle, cut it in pieces 
and roasted it before the fire on their weapons, and then 
made the mother eat the flesh. In another case, when 
the Kurds had killed an Armenian, they joined hands 
and danced about the corpse, singing a song of triumph. 
They then cut up the corpse, boiled it, and forced the 
Armenians residing there to eat the flesh. Flocks were 
driven off, grain burned, and houses razed to the ground 
and burned. Many women died from fright, and the 
children also died from fright or exposure to the cold. 
We found that nearly half the members of the families 
we met had perished during the flight. They had great 
difficulty in securing food to eat. All of them had sub- 
stantially the same harrowing tale to tell. About ten 
thousand refugees are estimated to have passed through 
the district of Khoi." 

Eight of the villages near Van were totally depopu- 
lated and all their people slain or rendered fugitives, 
except the young women who were seized and taken to 
Kurdish harems. In the Van provinces nearly two 
hundred villages were partially destroyed. 



376 VAN AND MOUSH. 

During the last weeks in December, 1895, the car- 
nival of slaughter continued with tireless energy and 
terrible ferocity by the Turks and Kurds. From every 
side came reports of atrocities by Turks, Kurds, and 
Circassians — villages swept by fire, the men massacred, 
the women either slain or reserved for a fate worse than 
death. Thousands of women were carried away cap- 
tive to become inmates of some vile Moslem harem. 
An illustration of the Turkish method of extermination 
was found in the case of the village of Hoh, in the 
Sandjak district. At first the aghas (or local magis- 
trates) promised to protect the Christians, but when 
they saw villages burning in every direction they re- 
fused to keep their word. All the Christians were told 
that, under the pain of death, they must accept Islam. 
They were assembled at the Mosque, and there eighty 
young men were picked out and led outside the village 
— for slaughter. Eight escaped, sixty-two were killed, 
and ten wounded. The young women of the village 
were taken to Turkish harems, and the survivors of the 
Christian population were scattered among other vil- 
lages. 

In every district there was the same tragic story of 
massacre, outrage, pillage, and abduction ; monasteries 
sacked, and Christian pastors and people butchered. 
In many villages the Armenian priests were among the 
number who laid down their lives as a testimony to the 
faith. In almost every village the strong men and 
youths were killed, and in nearly every case they met 
death with the fortitude of true martyrs. Many were 
killed with horrible tortures, because of their refusal to 
deny Christ. Among those who so perished were the 
Armenian pastors at Khizan, Halakeny, and Koh. 



VAN AND MOUSH. 377 

Although in official communications the atrocities 
were denied by the Turkish government, the statements 
issued by the Porte were nowhere credited. Denials 
of the massacres of Trebizond and Erzeroum were cir- 
culated, despite the statements of American and Euro- 
pean Consular officials, missionaries, and Armenian sur- 
vivors, supplemented by the photographs of the piles of 
dead in the streets and cemeteries. A number of 
Armenian citizens were arrested by the authorities 
after the Trebizond massacre, on the pretext that they 
caused the riot, and six of them were condemned to 
death. 

In January, 1896, the Mesopotamian Christians 
of Mardin were suddenly attacked by a large body of 
Kurds, the town being surrounded. News had already 
been received of the burning of many villages and the 
massacre of thousands of peaceful peasants, but the 
Mardin attack came like a thunderbolt. Many hun- 
dreds were butchered in a few hours. A number of 
native ministers of the Gospel were slain. 

The town was a scene of terror and desolation ; 
groups of weeping mothers and crying children sheltered 
themselves in the houses, while all around, and even 
upon the floors were the telltale pools of blood that 
showed where the martyrs fell under the Kurdish 
swords. Dead bodies, clotted with blood that had 
flowed from great gaping wounds, lay everywhere in 
sight. There were other horrors that added to the 
terror — the attacks on the native women and girls, who 
were subjected to nameless abuse. 

The massacres at Mardin and Gemerek resulted in 
leaving the survivors in those once populous villages 
in a condition that threatened to exterminate them by 



378 VAN AND MOTTSH. 

starvation. The help which was cabled to them from 
the relief fund was welcomed with a gratitude that can 
hardly be expressed in words. With the horror of their 
recent woes still unrelieved, the aid seemed as if 
heaven-sent. Erzeroum was still full of wounded, and 
rows upon rows of blackened ruins alone showed where 
its homes once stood. There were many hundreds 
homeless. Harpoot, too, had a large number exposed 
to hunger and cold. At Diarbekir the destitution was 
probably worst of all, for both in the city and villages, 
the slaughter was relentless, and the survivors had 
nothing to expect but death by slow degrees — their 
little ones perishing of hunger and cold beside them. 
At Erzinjian, where many martyrs fell, the remaining 
Christians were scattered around, hiding where they 
could, like hunted wild beasts. 

After these massacres most piteous appeals were re- 
ceived in this country from relatives in the stricken 
towns and villages. A letter sent by a poor mother 
from Gurun to a relative here, said : 

" We have only to say that I and my child are 
living. No male population lias been left in our town. 
They have killed my father. I took the child with me 
and sought refuge in the church. Our cousin also has 
been killed. Of our three families, only one family lias 
partly a shelter, but we have not even a piece of a 
blanket to cover our nakedness ! We have nothing to 
eat. The government is giving a small piece of bread 
for each living person. No physician has been left. 
Our child has not a book to study from or to read. 
Everything has been destroyed. They have plundered 
even the goods which were concealed in the ground. 
There is no life for us here. In our three families, 




Sketches of Armenia and Kurdestan. 



VAN AND MOUSH. 381 

there is not a lamp to give light. For God's sake send 
help or else we will die of starvation." 

A letter from a young man in the same town to an 
Armenian in New York, said : 

" You have no doubt heard of the terrible events that 
have taken place in our town. They have not left 
anything in our house. They killed your brother and 
sister. They have burned our stable and woodhouse 
and our winter house. We are in terrible distress. 
We have no bedding, no clothes. We have not even 
the means to procure a piece of dry bread. Rich and 
poor are all alike, and our generous neighbors are not any 
better off than ourselves, so that they cannot help us. 
No merchant or broker has been left." 

A few extracts from another report of Mr. W. W. 
Howard, sent from Urumia in December, 1895, will 
fitly close this chapter of woe and destitution. 

" The American mission work at Van has been sus- 
pended, and all the schools closed. The closing of the 
schools, however, has not been confined to the Ameri- 
can mission, but has extended to every school in the 
city, of whatever race or creed. All the shops have 
likewise been closed, both Armenian and Turkish. 
Even the Turkish shops in the bazaar proper have been 
shut, so great is the fear of massacre. The Turkish 
Government ordered the Armenian merchants to open 
their shops, and the Armenians obeyed, but when the 
shops were opened they were entirely empt}*", the goods 
having been removed to the merchants' houses. The 
merchants then sat in their empty stores with nothing 
to sell. 

" With the money already sent to her, Miss Kimball 
has done a large work in the supplying of bread for the 
22 



382 VAN AND MOUSH. 

starving, and she is now at work on a soup kitchen. 
Her plan of relief is to furnish work to such of the poor 
as are able to work. Business in Van and the province 
of Van has been dead for months. Nothing is being 
bought or sold except the simplest articles of food that 
will sustain life. Miss Kimball is, therefore, distribut- 
ing these articles of clothing free to the wretched 
village refugees who are flocking to Van in rags and 
nakedness. 

" In raiding the villages the Hamidieh cavalry not 
only destroyed the houses, drove off the sheep and cat- 
tle and removed every portable piece of property, but 
actually stripped the villagers of the clothes on their 
backs. The unfortunate peasants, men, women and 
children, were thrust out into the wilderness of snow- 
covered mountains without clothes to cover them or 
food to eat. How many of these poor creatures left 
bloody tracks on snow and ice ; how many dropped by 
the wayside to go down to death in a shroud of snow 
and a tomb of ice no man may know. The snow will 
not give up its dead for long months to come. 

" Are the Christian people of America willing that 
this thing shall continue ? " 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE REIGN OF TERROR — HARPOOT AND ZEITOUN. 

The Harpoot massacre was another butchery carried 
out under orders. Sixty Christians fled to a church in 
the vain hope that its walls would furnish them a 
shelter against those who were crying for the blood of 
Armenians. They were permitted for a time to believe 
themselves secure, but suddenly the church was sur- 
rounded by a great number of Kurds. The doors were 
then blown in, and the Christians thought that they 
would be massacred within the sacred structure. They 
were not. Their captors took them one at a time out- 
side the church, and there, heedless of the cries for 
mercy from women and children, killed them, either by 
shooting or stabbing them. The first victim was the 
Protestant pastor of the church, who, as he was dragged 
out, bade the others, if they had to die, to die as Chris- 
tians. He met his death like a martyr. Some of the 
refugees, in a very agony of terror, offered to abjure 
their faith and accept Islamism, thinking thus to save 
their lives. The offers availed them nothing, for their 
insatiable enemies, after accepting them, dragged the 
converts out and killed them one by one. The Arme- 
nian Church was turned into a mosque, and the Prot- 
estant Church into a stable. 

An eyewitness who saw the Christian quarter in 
flames and the houses of the American mission burning, 
said that he came on to Malatia (the ancient Melitene), 

(383) 



384 HARPOOT AND ZEITOUN. 

and found not a house in the Christian quarter stand- 
ing. In a khan there were about twenty wounded 
men, the sole survivors of a caravan of two hundred 
who had been traveling to Harpoot from Northern 
Syria and whose members had nearly all been slain by 
the Kurdish bands. There were one hundred and 
fifty bodies lying in the road. At Marash, the same 
witness, days after the massacre, counted eighty-seven 
dead Armenians in one spot, and there were hundreds 
of bodies strewn around in the near neighborhood. In 
the villages on the plains near Harpoot, each containing 
from fifty to one thousand houses, the evidences of 
slaughter were sickeningly abundant. The Kurdish 
butchers had slain fully half the population. The door 
of a house would be burst open, a volley fired upon the 
shuddering inmates, while those who rushed out were 
caught and killed in the fields. Then the houses were 
plundered, fired and left blazing. This was the fate of 
thousands of Christian homes. 

Several thousand Armenian Christians fell in the city 
of Harpoot under Kurdish and Turkish swords. In the 
Province of Harpoot were hundreds of small towns and 
villages, few of which escaped the terrible fate of 
slaughter and desolation that befell over two thousand 
other towns and villages throughout the country. 

Harpoot is one of the principal stations of the East- 
ern Turkey Mission, and is the seat of Euphrates 
College, a group of buildings, eight of wliich were 
badly wrecked during the riots. This institution had 
about five hundred and sixty-four pupils in all its de- 
partments, and was exerting a powerful influence for 
good throughout Eastern Turkey. 

It was estimated that the loss would not be less than 



HARPOOT AND ZEITODN. 385 

$88,000. At Marash, the destruction of mission buildings 
. was more complete. The Central Turkey Girls' College 
and the Theological Seminary were both wrecked. 
There were in the former institution (which was or- 
ganized in 1884), about thirty-five students. Both 
buildings were located a little distance outside of 
Marash. 

In February, 1896, the United States Minister, Mr. 
Terrell, demanded an indemnity of $100,000 for the 
burning and pillaging of the American missions at 
Marash and Harpoot. He also asked for the immediate 
granting of firmans for the rebuilding of them. 

Rev. Grigos Hachadoovian, the pastor of the Second. 
Congregational Church in Harpoot, when the Turkish 
soldiers commenced shooting all over the city, took his 
wife and children and went to church, where about sixty 
of his congregation joined him. Naturally good and 
earnest Christians as they were, they lifted their 
voices up to heaven for help. While in prayer the 
Turks rushed in and demanded of the minister to be- 
come a Mohammedan then and there, with his con- 
gregation. He refused promptly. The Turks removed 
the pulpit, made a butchering platform, cutoff the head 
of the minister and actually cut him to pieces before his 
congregation. Mind you on the platform from which he 
had preached Christ for twenty years. This horrible 
spectacle had no effect upon the devout Christian Ar- 
menians, as they all refused to denounce Christ and 
pray to Mohammed, and all were killed in the church 
to the last man, woman and child. What do you think 
of that picture, Christian people of America? That is 
the Mohammedanism some people would like to have 
introduced into our country. 



386 HARPOOT AND ZEITOUN. 

Letters received from persons engaged in relief work 
among the Armenians, gave the following carefully 
prepared statistics concerning the recent massacres by 
the Turks under the tolerance of Christian powers in 
the year of our Lord, 1895-6. These statistics were 
given in detail for the several villages in Harpoot 
province. 

" Killed, thirty thousand six hundred and one ; 
burned to death, one thousand four hundred and thirty- 
six ; preachers and priests killed, fifty-one ; died from 
starvation, two thousand four hundred and sixty-one ; 
died unprotected in the fields, four thousand three hun- 
dred and forty ; died from fear, six hundred and sixty ; 
wounded, eight thousand ; houses burned, twenty-eight 
thousand five hundred and forty-two ; forcible conver- 
tions, fifteen thousand and sixty-six ; women and girls 
abducted, five thousand five hundred and forty-six ; for- 
cible marriages, one thousand five hundred and fifty- 
one ; churches burned, two hundred and twenty-seven ; 
destitute and starving, ninety-four thousand seven 
hundred and fifty." The account does not add the 
number of English and American cannon with the cob- 
webs left over their mouths. The Turks said that they 
killed too few the last time, and would kill more in the 
next massacre. 

When the Kurds were expelled from Diarbekir and 
the gates closed against them, they turned their atten- 
tion to the villages. These, one after another, were 
taken, plundered, and in many instances, burned — ■ 
massacre being generally in proportion to the degree 
of resistance made by the villagers. A district about 
ninety miles long and fifty broad, east of Diarbekir, 
and up to the boarders of Syert, in the vilayet of 



HARPOOT AND ZEITOUN. 387 

Bitlis, was swept by this hurricane of destruction, 
wherever Christian villages nestled among the billows 
of this rolling country. The first intimation that the 
wave of wanton wreckage was moving southward was 
given in the attack upon Tel-Ermin. This Armenian 
town of two hundred houses and sixty shops, five hours 
west of Mardin, was taken, plundered and burned. 
The next day Gorli, a Syrian village south of Mardin, 
and only two hours away, shared the same fate. About 
the same time the village of Abrahamiyeh fell into the 
hands of the Kurds and only Monsoruyeh, twenty miles 
north of the city remained intact. This they tried to 
capture, but were driven back. Serious attempts were 
made by the Kurds to enter the city in the hope that 
they would be aided from within. In this they were 
disappointed and obliged to draw off with severe loss. 
The Kurds persistently asserted that a firman for the 
slaughter of Christians had been given, but that the 
Christians of Mardin had bribed the government to 
conceal it and defend them. When the Kurds realized 
that the government and city garrison were a unit for 
the common defence, they drew off and the tide of at- 
tack swept further east taking Nisibin, and some twenty 
Christian villages in its way. Thousands of refugees 
collected near Mardin. In the village of Kulleth, three 
hundred refugees from the Diarbekir plain were beg- 
ging food and clothing. The entire Christian popula- 
tion remaining in Syert was stripped of everything. 

Fully three thousand Armenians were massacred at 
Arabkir, and the widows and orphans of those killed 
were left in terrible distress from cold and hunger. 

The Armenians of Sivas and Csesarea were in daily 
fear of massacre, and soon their fears were terribly re- 



388 HARPOOT AND ZEITOUN. 

alized, for the Kurds and Turks thoroughly performed 
their inhuman work of butcheiy and plunder, the for- 
mer taking the booty as their pay, according to the per- 
mission granted from Constantinople. 

In the district between Gemerek and Caesarea twenty- 
seven Armenian villages were pillaged and burned. 
The thirteen villages this side of Gemerek, and five or 
six hours distant, such as B urban, Dendil, Tekmen, etc., 
were also pillaged and ruined. Burhan was ravaged 
five times and Tekmen seven times. The raiders car 
ried plunder from Dendil for three days continuously ; 
they carried away even the old mats and wooden 
spoons from the houses. No clothing, no bedding, no 
utensils, and no food was left to the survivors in those 
villages. The people lived on herbs gathered from the 
hillsides, and cooked in the petroleum tins which the 
raiders had brought along full of petroleum to fire the 
houses with. In the district of Tounnouz the Ar- 
menian villages, especially Hantavos, Kazmakara and 
Patsin were pillaged and destroyed, the male inhabit- 
ants were butchered, and the young women were car- 
ried cff. Some of the villages were so utterly destroyed 
that now there is no sign that such places existed. 

At Gemerek the Turks joined the Armenians and 
drove away the raiders, who however carried away one 
thousand sheep and cattle and about one hundred horse 
loads of wheat and flour from the neighboring mills. 

The reader can understand the ferocity of the attack 
upon the Christians in this city from the fact that the 
wife of a captain in the Turkish army watched the hor- 
rors from her window. She was so affected b}' what 
she saw that she has since that event become insane. 

Another terrible massacre occurred inPalu, a district 



HARPOOT AND ZEITOUN. 389 

not far from Harpoot. An Armenian lady of Palu, 
writing to her son in New York, thus told the story : 

'J You are my comfort in God. My only joy is that 
you are safe ; but we are in great distress. My hands 
are trembling ; I cannot write from hunger. The 
Turks have burned forty-one villages, destroying 
everything. They take the beautiful women to their 
homes and use them badly. They kill the old men, 
and the old women and children are entirely naked. 
Their bed is now the snow. They go begging at Turk- 
ish doors for a piece of bread, and instead of bread 
they get mulberry and husks. After six days of plun- 
dering and burning those villages, our enemies returned 
to the city. Ten thousand Kurds with the Mohammed- 
ans of the city, attacked the houses and killed one 
thousand seven hundred and thirty-two grown-up men 
and many children and women who would not accept 
Mohammedism. 

" They took all the articles which were useful and 
broke everything they had no use for. They tore up 
every place in the hope of finding something valuable." 

A letter received from an Armenian resident on the 
seacoast of Cilicia, said : 

"The government has taken away all the arms from 
the Armenians of Chok Marsovan, who were armed to 
protect themselves against fifteen thousand Bashi- 
Bazouks, who were marching on them. Since then the 
Turks have reduced to ashes the villages of Engerliand 
Ojakli, which contained respectively three hundred and 
two hundred and fifty houses. They have plundered 
seventy -five houses in the Armenian village of Najarli. 
They set on fire the houses in the presence of the 
regular soldiers. Now all the villagers are reduced to 



390 HARPOOT AND ZEITOUN. 

the utmost distress. More than one hundred farms 
have been plundered, and many people butchered in 
the houses and in the gardens. 1 ' 

Every account from survivors of the massacres who 
succeeded in reaching places of safety, disclosed some 
new and revolting trait of Moslem ferocity and hatred 
against Christianity. A veritable crusade of Moham- 
medan fanaticism ruled the hour. Whole villages and 
towns, and whole Christian quarters in cities were 
driven like helpless sheep into the Moslem fold. 

Aintab, a city of forty-five thousand inhabitants had 
its baptism of blood. The massacre and pillage began 
in the markets and in those parts of the city where 
Christian houses offered easy points of attack, crowds 
rushed in every direction while pistol and gun shots 
with cries of fear, anger and defiance made an exhibi- 
tion of the most fearful tumult and confusion. 

After the Kinds and Turkish soldiers of Harpoothad 
plundered and burned nearly all of the Christian 
houses in the missionary quarter of the city, including 
eight of the mission buildings which were then in 
flames, when massacre was rife and the air was rent 
with the cry of the wounded and dying, nearly five 
hundred Christian refugees with the missionaries, 
driven from place to place by fire and bullet, found 
themselves in the large, new stone building of 
Euphrates College. The Turkish officers, seeing that 
in order to reach the refugees they must withdraw the 
Americans whom they feared to kill, attempted to induce 
the missionaries to come out from the building " that 
they might be the better protected." Dr. Barnum (a 
missionary for thirty-nine years) replied, " You can 
protect us here better than anywhere else ; we shall re- 



HARPOOT AND ZEITOUH. 391 

main and if you burn the building we will die with 
these Christians." They were all spared. Certainly 
the age of heroism is not past. 

The city of Oorfa is one of the most ancient in the 
world. It is the Edessa of the time of Christ where 
Abgar reigned as King (see Chapter I.) — the Ur of 
Chaldea, where the patriarch Abraham was born. 

It was one of the great heathen cities to which the 
disciples went immediately after Pentecost and where 
they were most gladty received. In this city, on October 
27th, 1895, began an awful slaughter, which continued 
for two days. When the massacre was yet proceeding, 
a Muezzin ascended to the steeple of the Armenian 
church and began to call the faithful to prayer. Dur- 
ing the two days' disturbance three thousand Christians 
were slaughtered by a single Hamidieh regiment and a 
force of Bedouins and all their property was either 
looted or destroyed. Among other horrors, one hun- 
dred and fifty wounded Armenians were thrown down 
a well and petroleum having been poured over them 
the whole mass of human beings were set on fire and 
perished in most awful agony. 

For two months, the Christian population of Oorfa 
experienced all the vicissitudes of a veritable "Reign 
of Terror." During all this time the Christians ven- 
tured beyond the precincts of their own homes only at 
the risk of their lives. Nor were they secure even in 
their homes. For six or seven weeks the soldiers of 
the government went from house to house almost daily, 
and after forcing an entrance, offered the inmates the 
option of becoming Moslems, or being killed on the 
spot. 

When the general onslaught began on December 



392 HARPOOT AND ZEITOtTtf. 

29tli, the Christians sought the refuge of their churches 
and every other possible place which they hoped might 
shelter them from the fury of their fiendish assailants. 
Many took refuge in wells, some under manure heaps, 
while others had their friends cover them under piles 
of charcoal. For some of these their shelters proved 
to be a living grave. Two hundred and forty-six per- 
sons took refuge in the home of the American Mission- 
ary, Miss Shattuck. 

During the six weeks immediately following the 
first massacre, this devoted missionary heroine was 
obliged to keep all but constant vigil, and was unable 
through all this time to undress even once, and retire 
to her room for a night's rest. Any rest or sleep ob- 
tained was on a lounge and for but short intervals, 
while others kept watch. 

This church was built entirely of stone and may be 
said to be absolutely fire-proof. It was to this edifice 
from fifteen hundred to two thousand of the people fled 
when the general massacre began, and the stoiy of what 
took place within its walls on that awful clay will never 
be fully known. These nearly two thousand victims 
were at the mercy of the merciless soldiers and the 
worse than merciless mob. The soldiers were first to 
enter, but they soon allowed the promiscuous rabble to 
follow and share with them in the carnival of debauch- 
evy and blood. The fiendish fanaticism of these 
Moslems had its climax in setting fire to the victims of 
their wild fury. There being no wood finishing on the 
inside of the church, and little or no inflammable fur- 
nishings, one can only conjecture how they succeeded 
in transforming this multitude of human sacrifices into 
the great mass of bones and ashes to which they were 



HARPOOT AND ZEITOUN. 893 

all reduced by the following morning. For two or 
three days afterward a number of hammals (Turkish 
porters), were engaged in carrying the bones and 
charred remains of these victims from the church to a 
place close in the rear of the American mission prem- 
ises, where they were dumped over a portion of the old 
wall of the city. 

Apart altogether from those killed and burned in 
the church, the bodies of over one thousand five hun- 
dred by actual count were dragged, usually by the legs, 
and in considerable numbers at a time, by animals, to 
a large trench dug for the purpose on the outskirts of 
the city. There they lie in one, irregular mass, await- 
ing the day when all wrongs shall be righted. 

As many as three hundred bodies were taken from 
one of the large cistern wells some days after the mas- 
sacre, while another furnished over fifty and yet an- 
other about thirty. Scarcely a single Gregorian or 
Protestant home escaped the general pillage and blood- 
shed and the total number of victims in this last mas- 
sacre in Oorfa must now be put down at four thousand. 

Read this farewell which seemed to come out from 
the tombs of the dead : 

Some days before the massacre at Oorfa the Ar- 
menians were warned that it was impending, but the 
officials prevented them from leaving the town. Dur- 
ing the suspense the Gregorian clergy compiled a letter 
which they sent secretly to Aintab, whence it was for- 
warded to Europe. The Arch Priest Stephen and four 
other priests were subsequently slain before the altar 
while celebrating the Eucharist. The letter contained 
messages to the Sultan and to the Gregorian's Moslem 
fellow-countrymen, and reproached their European 



394 HARPOOT AND ZEITOUN. 

brethren for standing by, watching the bloody work. 
It also contained the following : 

" To the Christians of the United States of America 
we say farewell. We have been strenuously opposed 
to your mission work among us, but these bloody days 
have shown that some of our Protestant brethren have 
been staunch defenders of our honor and our faith. 
You, at least, know that our crime, in the eyes of the 
Turk, has been that we adopted the civilization you 
commended to us. Behold now the missions and 
schools which you planted among us, at the cost of 
many millions of dollars and hundreds of precious 
lives! They are in ruins, and the Turk is planning to 
rid himself of the missionaries and teachers by leaving 
them nobody among whom to labor." 

Zeitoun has the glory of being the only town that 
successfully resisted the Turkish troops and secured 
for itself an honorable capitulation. 

Peace having been secured through the Consuls of 
the various Powers, it was believed that the terms of 
the amnesty granted by the Porte would honestly be 
fulfilled. 

It would not have been a very easy thing to hush up 
another massacre, and if one had occurred it might 
at last have aroused the Powers that (ought to) be to 
some decisive action. 

The town of Zeitoun lies several hours' journey over 
the mountains, to the north of Marash. Secluded in a 
deep valley, it is well protected on all four of the roads 
leading into it and could be defended against very 
great odds if there were a small force at each narrow 
pass. 

The Zeitounlis had early determined to make a stand 



HARPOOT AND ZEITOUN. 395 

for their lives and had succeeded in capturing the bar- 
rucks, which are situated just at the edge of the town, 
after an attack of sixty hours and taking prisoners nearly 
six hundred Turkish soldiers, and then they proceeded 
to garrison and provision the town for a siege. 

In one of the battles which took place at Hot Springs, 
some five miles east of the city, the Zeitounlis made a 
stand at a stone bridge which there spans a rushing 
torrent. But after holding it bravely for awhile they 
slowly retreated up a steep hill until almost the entire 
Turkish army had crossed the bridge, when suddenly 
the bridge was blown up and the Zeitounlis turning, 
hurled down from the hills above great rocks and 
poured upon them a most destructive fire. Hemmed 
iu as they were the loss was very great. The Turkish 
account was that fire burst out from the air or from the 
ground and destroyed the army. Seven distinct attacks 
were made in which the losses as sent through official 
sources to the Porte were placed at ten thousand men. 

On February 9th, 1896, the Porte communicated to 
the embassies of the Powers its reply to the proposals 
of the Zeitounlis for conditions of surrender. The 
Porte promised a satisfactory settlement, and on the 
13th the terms were announced. Terrible distress and 
illness prevailed in the city as the consequence of the 
siege. Thousands died of cold and starvation. 

How the Turk began on the first day of 1896 to keep 
the oft repeated promises made to the Powers of 
Europe, was best told in the following account of the 
massacre at Birijik (province of Aleppo). 

"The assault on the Christian houses commenced at 
about nine o'clock in the morning, and continued until 
nightfall. The soldiers were aided by the Moslems of 



8i*i HAEPOOT AND ZEITOUN. 

the city in the terrible work. The object at first seemed 
to be mainly plunder, but, after the plunder had been 
secured, the soldiers seemed to make a systematic search 
for men, to kill those who were unwilling to accept 
Mohammedanism. The cruelty used to force men to 
become Moslems was terrible. In one case the soldiers 
found some twenty people, men, women and children, 
who had taken refuge in a sort of cave. They dragged 
them out, and killed all the men and boys because the} r 
would not become Moslems. 

" After cutting down one old man who had thus re- 
fused they put live coals upon his body, and, as he was 
writhing in torture, they held a Bible before him and 
asked him mockingly to read them some of the promises 
in which he had trusted. Others were thrown into the 
river while still alive, after having been cruelly wounded. 
The wounded and children of this party were loaded up 
like goods upon the backs of porters and carried off to 
the houses of Mussulmans. 

" Christian girls were eagerly sought after, and much 
quarreling occurred over the question of their division 
among their captors. Every Christian house, except 
two claimed to be owned by Turks, was plundered. 
Ninety-six men were killed, or about half of the adult 
Christian men. The others became Mussulmans to save 
their lives, so that there was not a single Christian left 
in Birijik. The Armenian Church was made into a 
mosque and the Protestant Church into a Medresse 
Seminary." 

Massacres went on actively in Armenia for over six- 
teen months, dating from the terrible slaughter at Sas- 
soun in August and September, 1894. A low estimate 
of those either killed, or in a state of actual starvation, 




Refugees and Policemen at an Armenian Church. 



HARPOOT AND ZEITOUN. 399 

was half the agricultural population of seven vilayets — 
two hundred and seventy-five thousand, according to 
Turkish statistics, two-thirds of the starving being 
women and children. The government completed its 
work in the vilayets by reducing the population and 
the remaining property under the forms of martial law, 
and by forcing the Armenians to declare themselves 
Mohammedans. Many died for their faith, but the 
greater number still held out, dying by inches. 

Turkish estimates, which, as can be readily under- 
stood, did not magnify the massacres, gave the follow- 
ing as the net result of the sanguinary work up to the 
middle of December i 

Armenian population in larger towns 177,700 

Armenian population in villages ........ 538,500 

Number killed in towns (estimated) ...... 20,000 

Number of Armenian villages (about) 3,300 

Villages destroyed „ . . . 2,500 

Number killed in villages, no data, but probably, 60,000 

Number reduced to starvation in towns .... 75,000 

Number reduced to starvation in villages . . . 366,600 
23 



CHAPTER XV. 

RELIEF WORK IN ARMENIA. 

In presenting an account of the relief work done in 
Armenia, the order in time has been observed in a very 
great degree in order that as the distress and misery 
increased the reader might see that greater efforts 
were made to relieve the terrible condition of the starv- 
ing thousands. 

March 15, 1896, Hon. John Wanamaker who was 
then in the East, sent this cablegram to the Relief 
Committee of Philadelphia. " I am convinced that the 
necessity is appalling. Needs for relief extremely 
urgent." 

The spring of 1894 saw the gaunt spectre of poverty 
stalking through this devoted land. It trod on the 
beautiful valleys and they lost their verdure and their 
harvests withered. Poverty became hunger and cheeks 
grew thin and death's pallor looked out from hollow 
eyes. Hunger became starvation and the keenest form 
of suffering became the portion of thousands of once 
prosperous and happy Armenians. 

The Rev. Mr. Macallum, a missionary at Erzeroum 
said of the situation in and about that city in April 
1894: 

" The famine continues to increase in severity. Spring- 
is opening up late. Very many of the farmers have no 
grain to sow; we wish we had enough money on hand 
to supply the Protestants of Khanoos with seed, but I 
am sorry to say that what has come to us is now ex- 
(400) 



BELIEF WORK IN ARMENIA. 401 

hausted, or practically so. We are feeding about seven 
hundred people a day in this city, who otherwise would 
have nothing to eat. Besides this, we have sent suffi- 
cient out to the country districts to keep life and cour- 
age in several hundred more." 

Over $2,000 had been sent to Mr. Macallum up to 
the middle of May but though spring had arrived and 
the agony of the cold was over, there was no work to be 
found, and over one-third of the sixty thousand inhabit- 
ants of Erzeroum had nothing to eat except the bread 
of charity. In the Passen and Khanoos district near by 
a similar famine was prevailing, and but for the help 
sent to them many of the people would have died of 
starvation. 

Writing to the friends who had sent him aid Mr. 
Macallum said : '■' You may rest assured that there are 
hundreds of poor starving people who bless you and the 
givers night and day. We have sought to help only 
those who are most needy, and the testimony of all is 
that the help we have administered has saved many 
from a terrible death. ' You have redeemed us.' 
'You have bought our children's blood.' 'May the 
Lord reward you a thousandfold for all you have 
done ! ' These and other like expressions we hear 
every day. Some of those who get bread from us re- 
gard it as sacred, and eat it as they take the sacrament 
in church. We are giving bread regularly to over a 
thousand people a day in the city, Protestants, Greeks, 
Catholics, and Gregorians. We have given £50 to the 
governor here for the Turkish poor. This gift was 
comparatively small, but more gratitude was expressed 
by the Turkish authorities than by the Gregorians, to 
whom we had given the most." 



402 RELIEF WORK IN ARMENIA. 

The summer of 1894 instead of bringing relief, brought 
increased burdens from the frequent raids of the wild 
Kurds, who during that single year drove out of the 
districts of Boolanyk and Moush alone more than ten 
thousand head of cattle and sheep. The result was the 
utter disappearance of wealth and the rapid spread 
of misery so intense, so hopeless, so distressing in its 
moral and physical effects as to have inspired some of 
its victims with that wild courage which is akin to 
despair. 

To the depredations of the Kurds, were added the 
cruel extortions of the Zaptiehs, or official tax-gatherers. 
There was absolutely no redress for Christians who 
suffered in property, life or limb at the hands of Mo- 
hammedans. 

The taxes levied upon Armenians were exorbitant; 
the bribes that invariably accompanied them, and were 
imposed by the Zaptiehs, swelled to any proportions, 
and assumed the most repugnant forms, while the 
methods employed to collect both constituted by them- 
selves sufficient justification for the sweeping away of 
Ottoman rule in Armenia. 

To give a fair instance of the different rates of taxa- 
tion for Christians and Mohammedans in towns it will 
suffice to point out that in Erzeroum, "where there are 
eight thousand Mohammedan houses, the Moslems paid 
only three hundred and ninety-five thousand piastres, 
whereas the Christians, whose houses number but two 
thousand, paid four hundred and thirty thousand pias- 
tres. 

The barbarities and the enormities and savagery of 
the Sassoun massacres left those districts in a most de- 
plorable condition. After decimating the population, 



RELIEF WORK IN ARMENIA. 403 

the Kurds burned and utterly destroyed many villages 
and drove off all their cattle and sheep and left the 
plains as if swept by cyclone and wrecked by earth- 
quake. 

The fugitives returning after the Kurdish fiends had 
returned into the mountains had neither the means nor 
the opportunity to cultivate the soil which their fore- 
fathershad possessed for many generations. Their homes 
were wrecked, their farms destroyed, and their imple- 
ments and cattle seized by the bandit mountaineers, 
and they themselves were compelled to seek such shel- 
ter as the woods and caves afforded. 

It was the Medical Missionary at Van, Dr. Grace W. 
Kimball whose heart was so smitten with anguish at 
the sight of such suffering that she determined to let 
the world know what the horrors of Sassoun really were. 
In the smitten districts at least five thousand were living 
in the mountains and faring little better than the wild 
beasts. 

They were sustaining life on roots and berries and 
were almost naked — many wholly so. It is not surpris- 
ing that this terrible privation should have bred disease, 
and, when she wrote, fever and other physical troubles 
were carrying the wretched people off in large numbers. 
She described the condition of the women and little 
children as miserable beyond anything she had ever 
heard of. 

This brave Christian woman did not spend the time 
in lamenting the wretchedness of the people among 
whom she labored, but set about to find out some practi- 
cal way of helping them. Food, clothing, and shelter 
were the three prime necessities. She gathered the 
adults in about one hundred of the fugitive families, 



404 RELIEF WORK IN ARMENIA. 

and soon had them employed at making cotton cloth — 
an industry with which they were already familiar. 
She supplied the material, and paid the workers for 
their labor, expending in this way about $100 weekly, 
which was applied to the relief of the families. By 
this excellent method, she gave the needed help to 
many of the sufferers without pauperizing them, and 
she earned the warmest love and gratitude of the Ar- 
menians. 

But the market for the product of this labor was 
soon supplied and the resources of the missionaries were 
soon exhausted. It was then that she wrote in the an- 
guish of her soul to this country and this was the origin 
of The Christian Herald Relief Fund which collected 
and sent many thousand dollars to the centers of mas- 
sacres and suffering. 

Early in October, 1895, Mr. W. W. Howard the 
commissioner sent by The Christian Herald of New 
York to relieve the persecuted and hunger smitten peas- 
ants of Armenia, set forth on his errand of mercy. In 
retaliation for his articles on the terrible suffering in 
Armenia and its cause, the Turkish government re- 
solved to prevent Mr. Howard from entering its domin- 
ions. Refused permission to pass through Anatolia he 
was compelled to go through Russia and Persia, and 
eventually was prevented by the Turkish officials from 
crossing the frontier opposite Van, a notification of the 
order for his exclusion being sent to Mr. Terrell, the 
American minister at Constantinople, who cabled the 
fact to this country. 

This, however, did not impede the work of the dis- 
tribution of the relief fund as the money was sent to 
W. W. Peet, Constantinople, to be distributed by Rev. 



RELIEF WORK IN ARMENIA. 405 

H. O. Dwight "with special reference to sufferers in 
the neighborhood of Van." 

The whole country was in fearful peril and Van it- 
self practically in a state of siege, the trees along the 
streets having been leveled to permit the placing of 
cannon in position to command the Armenian quarter. 
A most various phase of the condition was wholesale 
exile. Thousands of Armenian villagers, unable to en- 
dure privation longer, or to see their wives and children 
starve left their ruined homes and bare fields and 
poured into the neighboring cities, unsheltered and 
hungry. 

Meanwhile the good work that the missionaries were 
doing at Van and Bitlis led the Duke of Westminster, 
Chairman of the British Committee of Relief, and Sir 
Philip Currie, the British Ambassador at Constanti- 
nople, to designate Messrs. Raynolds and Cole as al- 
moners of their bounty as they were of the gifts from 
America. 

When these gentlemen first reached the desolated 
region they were greatly hindered in caring for the 
poor by petty officials, but later on and in view of rep- 
resentations made by the embassies, the opposition 
ceased, at least outwardly. Men were set at work re- 
building houses and food was distributed to the most 
needy. It was estimated that $40,000 would be needed 
to feed upwards of five thousand persons until the next 
harvest, and a call was sent for further aid from Eu- 
rope and America. Finally the bitter hate of the Turk- 
ish officials prevailed and the distribution of supplies 
was stopped and Messrs. Cole and Raynolds compelled 
to return to their homes. 

There were one hundred thousand persons in the two 



406 RELIEF WORK IN ARMENIA. 

hundred towns and villages in one district alone, who 
were actually starving, and the story of one was the 
story of all sections. No one not in the actual midst 
of it could have any comprehension of the extent of the 
desolation and of the degree of the suffering. Daily 
rations of bread, amounting to two cents for adults and 
one cent for children, were delivered to more than one 
thousand six hundred in one city. Over four thousand 
suits consisting of shirt and drawers, were made and 
distributed, three hundred mattresses and four hundred 
quilts were given. Many were glad of a piece of bag- 
ging to put over them. Poor Armenia ! Drenched 
with the blood of her children, her hills and valleys re- 
sounding with their shrieks and sighs and moans, she 
stood the oldest Christian nation in the world — asking 
for the smallest of small coins to preserve lives that 
might yet be given the crown of martyrdom — a spec- 
tacle for the world. 

In the first outburst of righteous indignation that 
blazed out from all Europe, it seemed as if the Infidel 
Turkish Government condemned unanimously by the 
verdict of all nations for its crimes against God 
and humanity, would soon be swept out of Europe 
and that even its possessions in Asia Minor would be 
torn from its grasp and partitioned among civilized 
races. 

Lord Salisbury, the British Premier, at a public din- 
ner, made an address which plainly intimated that the 
patience of Europe was exhausted, and that the Sultan's 
folly had sealed the doom of his own government, if 
not of the Ottoman Empire. Lord Salisbury recognized 
in the present condition of Turkey, the result of its of- 
fences against God. He said : 



RELIEF WORK IN ARMENIA. 407 

" Above all treaties, all combinations of the Powers, 
in the nature of things, is Providence. God, if you 
please to put it so, has determined that persistent and 
constant misgovernment must lead the government 
which follows it to its doom. The Sultan is not ex- 
empt any more than any other potentate from the law 
that injustice will bring the highest One on earth to 
ruin." 

These words sounded as if the Prime Minister really 
meant to do something to permanently better the con- 
dition of Christian Armenia, but in the light of after 
events it seemed that Lord Salisbury, after considerable 
reflection, concluded to let the Lord settle the account 
with Turkey without England's intervention. 

There was one man in Constantinople who played a 
mighty part in the life and death struggle between 
Christianity and Islam — Mattheos Ismirlian, the Ar- 
menian Patriarch, but great as was his influence, he 
was powerless to relieve the increasing mass of suffer- 
ing and misery in all the provinces. 

The story of Zeitoun, of its long and brave defence 
and of its final capitulation has been already told, but 
the distress which prevailed there was simply awful. 

The five European Consuls who went to Zeitoun to 
negotiate for the submission of the Armenian insur- 
gents telegraphed to their respective embassies that in- 
describable distress prevailed among the eight thousand 
refugees at that place. The sick, the dying and the 
dead were heaped together in all kinds of astonishing 
places where a little extra warmth was to be hoped for. 
Bitter cold prevailed and the women and girls were de- 
void of necessary clothing. 

Although the inhabitants of Zeitoun gave up their 



408 RELIEF WORK IN ARMENIA. 

arms, the refugees shrank from quitting the town 
through lack of confidence in the Turks. Only too 
well founded were their fears, as, a little while after 
this disarming, sixteen Zeitounlis were proceeding under 
the escort of one gendarme to Albistan to buy wheat 
or barley; they were suddenly fallen upon and nine of 
them were massacred. 

It was an awful crime against humanit}', the stupid 
est folly to put faith in the promises of the Turk 
where the welfare of a Christian was at stake. 

Fifteen Armenian families were murdered by Kurds 
in the district of Tchabakeiour, Bitlis, because, having 
embraced Islamism, they returned to Christianit}*. 
The authorities declined to recognize them as Moham- 
medans, and are said even to have advised them to re- 
main Christians. This exasperated the Kurds, who 
decided to exterminate them. 

At many points the lives of our missionaries were in 
peril but United States Minister Terrell warned the 
Sultan that his Government would be held responsible 
" If even a hair upon the head of an American should be 
touched : " and to enforce that word — a good straight- 
forward, understandable word, there were three Ameri- 
can warships cruising in Turkish waters. 

There is not the slightest doubt but that if the fleets 
of the Great Powers had passed the Dardanelles in 
November, 1894, and demanded that the outrages 
against the Armenians should cease, or their guns would 
fire on Stamboul, silence would have fallen like that 
of death upon the fierce soldiers and fiercer Kurds, in 
Armenia. But the word was not spoken, and before 
God and in the sight of Christendom the blood of the 
slain is upon them. 



RELIEF WORK IN ARMENIA. 409 

From eveiy quarter of the afflicted country appeals 
came pouring in, saying that the suffering was beyond 
all description and starvation imminent. "Aid must 
be sent quickly if lives were to be saved." The sur- 
vivors of the Erzingan massacre appealed to the Patri- 
arch at Constantinople to lay their sore need before the 
world, and to " send aid quickly, quickly, quickly." 
But these were only a few; similar appeals, heart-mov- 
ing in their terrible earnestness, kept coming in from 
a score of districts where continued massacres made 
the trembling survivors almost wish for death, that 
they might be spared the pain of witnessing further 
horrors. 

Noble work was done by American missionaries 
everywhere in Armenia. Nearly all were engaged in 
aiding the distressed families, and it was that fact alone 
that caused the Turkish officials to demand their with- 
drawal, in order that the homeless and destitute Arme- 
nians might be left to die. 

Conspicuous among the relief work accomplished was 
that done at Van under the direction of Dr. Grace W. 
Kimball. All who care for the amelioration of desti- 
tution and suffering, cannot fail to see in the following 
letter, the practical wisdom which characterized her 
work. October 15, 1895, Dr. Kimball wrote : 

" The plan of this work is to aid without pauperiz- 
ing, and to utilize a part of the great number of 
workers who are idle and starving because there is no 
work to be had. A large proportion of the people of 
both city and villages are conversant with the various 
processes in the manufacture of coarse cotton and 
woolen fabrics. This suggested a simple solution of 
the work problem. Small sums of money had, as early 



410 RELIEF WORK IN ARMENIA. 

as June, come to us for our distressed people. And on 
the strength of this money and the increasingly urgent 
demands for help, a very simple beginning was made. 
A bag of wool was bought, weighed out into pound 
portions, and whenever a woman came begging for 
help or work, her case was investigated, her name reg- 
istered, and she was given wool to card and spin. On 
return of the thread it was weighed and examined as 
to quality : the woman was paid at a rate that, it was 
estimated, would supply her with bread, and she was 
given another lot of wool. The giving of two or three 
lots of wool in this way was enough to bring down on 
us a crowd, and speedily we found a large business 
flooding in upon us — one demanding good organization 
and a corps of distributors. Cotton was added to our 
supplies, and all the processes and tricks of the two 
trades were quickly investigated, and every attempt 
was made to put the enterprise on a sound business 
basis. We were able to select at once those whom our 
hearts had ached to help to gain a living, and a good 
corps of helpers was soon organized. Men to keep 
the door — and it often took three men to do this against 
the clamoring crowd — men to receive and weigh the 
wool, cotton and thread; men for the various demands 
of the Central Bureau. 

" For the first two months the work was accommodated 
in our house, in the rooms used as a dispensary, and 
we were in a state of siege from morning to night. 
The long lower hall was devoted to a row of cotton- 
carders, the twang of whose primitive cards and the 
dust of whose work, filled the house from early morn- 
ing till dark, while a crowd of wretched men and wo- 
men was never absent. The accumulation of thread 



RELIEF WORK IN ARMENIA. 411 

brought the necessity fur weavers, and all the processes 
of weaving had to be studied. The demand was met 
at once by weavers who were out of work and in dire 
poverty. The thread was given them by weight, and 
the woven goods received by weight ; and they in turn 
were paid with due regard to the needs of their famil- 
ies.' Then to the children and to some who were too 
weak and sick to do the heavier work, yarn was given 
to be knitted into socks. 

" Shortly, we found ourselves in possession of a good 
stock of cotton cloth, woolen goods for the loose 
trousers worn here, and huge piles of coarse socks. 
And the question what to do with them came to the 
front. The suggestion was made that this work might 
help and be helped by the Sassoun Relief work, by our 
supplying materials for distribution there. The prop- 
osition was submitted to Messrs. Raynolds and CQle 
and gladly accepted by them, and this arrangement has 
been the means whereby our Bureau could double its 
efficiency, thanks to having an assured market for all 
its produce, without affecting the same industries here, 
which on the contrary it should help. Our goods are 
done up in bales, loaded on donkeys or ox-carts, and 
carried down to the lake harbor. They are received 
by the miserable little sailboats that ply the lake, and 
taken — with prayers for insurance — to the opposite side 
of Van Lake, a distance of some sixty miles. Thence 
they are transported by horses or carts to Moush, the 
headquarters of the Sassoun Commission. The journey 
takes from ten days to two or three weeks. In this 
way we have already sent some two thousand pairs of 
socks, and fourteen hundred webs of cloth. The total 



412 RELIEF WORK IN ARMENIA. 

number of workers (up to October 15) was as fol- 
lows : 

Spinners of cotton and wool .:..<, 373 

Weavers of cotton goods 49 

" " woolen goods 22 

" " carpets ' 5 

Carders 9 

Spindle Rillers 9 

Sizers 4 

Weighers, Door-tenders, etc 5 

Total 476 

" The average of wages per capita for the week was 
seven piastres, or about thirty cents. The intense 
poverty of the people is shown by the fact that these 
wages, small as they are, exceed from one-third to one- 
half the regular rates for the same work. On the other 
hand the demands grow more and more urgent — 
desperate, I might well say. So importunate are the 
crowds that I often have to call a man to pass me out 
of the office after my work is done. They beg and 
weep and catch at my clothes and will not let me go. 
And it is maddening to see such misery, and yet be 
obliged to turn a deaf ear to so much of it. We help, 
through our four hundred and seventy six workers, 
some two thousand souls, and this is not in itself, a 
small thing. But when it is compared with the vast 
number of helpless poor about us, it accentuates our 
appeal to our more fortunate fellow Christians for 
larger help. 

" The gratitude of these people is touching in the ex- 



RELIEF WORK IN ARMENIA. 413 

treme. Would that I could send to each one who has 
given to this work the blessings and the prayers and 
the gratitude that are bestowed on them daily. And 
yet the cry goes up for more help. Winter cold and 
rains are upon us. Thousands have but the thinnest 
and most ragged clothing, no shoes or stockings, many 
no beds, and most no fuel or other winter provisions. 
Thousands never taste anything but coarse, dry bread 
for weeks and months at a time — and little enough of 
that — while, especially in the villages, hundreds have 
not even that, and are on the verge of starvation. I 
doubt not that many will have actually starved before 
these words are read in America. 

" It is a national tragedy we are witnessing, and we 
know not what the end will be. It is also and es- 
pecially an historical struggle between Islam and 
Christianity. Christianity is for the present sadly 
worsted, and it remains for Christian Europe, England 
and America to decide which shall ultimately be 
victorious. All that Armenian Christians can do is to 
die martyrs to the Faith, and that they have done, are 
doing, and will continue to do daily, until help come — 
help which reaches not merely Embassies and the 
Capital, but which penetrates to the remote villages 
and mountain fastnesses where the worshippers of the 
Cross are to-day at the pitiless mercy of the fanatical 
Kurd and Turk. 

"In closing this incomplete report of our mutual work, 
let me again assure all our. helpers and cooperators, of 
the deep appreciation of their aid and sympatlry that is 
felt, not only by those who receive their gifts, but by 
the entire Armenian people. And let me also remind 
whomsoever may feel impelled to send us aid that he is 



414 RKUElf WORK IN ARMENIA. 

not only aiding a starving people, but is also helping to 
maintain Christianity against its most virulent foes." 

Early in the following December, Dr. Kimball again 
wrote : " The bakery which we opened is taxed to its 
utmost capacity and beyond, so that we have been 
giving orders on another bakery as a temporary thing, 
and are having a new bakery fitted up, to be ready in 
two or three days. We are now feeding about one 
thousand five hundred people daily, and are distribut- 
ing clothing to these people and hundreds of other 
villagers who are in greatest need. We have laid in 
one thousand five hundred bushels of wheat and a 
considerable amount of wood at very advantageous 
prices. 

"Just here, the man in charge of the bakeries comes 
and reports that the Governor is giving out orders for 
bread to the villagers. This Governor is a good man, 
and we do not doubt his good intentions. But as the 
treasury is entirely empty, we do not anticipate any 
very material assistance from Turkish sources. How- 
ever little it may be, it will doubtless be noised abroad, 
especially in English papers, as a proof of the tender 
feelings the Government entertains for its Christian 
subjects. The hand that smote will not long comfort. 
Please assure all contributors and helpers in this work 
of Armenian relief, of the deepest gratitude of the 
poor people, and of the hearty thanks of us who are 
witnesses of their misery. * * * " 

The following is a summary of relief work at Van 
up to January 1st, 1895 : Number of employees of In- 
dustrial Bureau nine hundred and eighty-one, repre- 
senting over nine hundred and fifty families, or about 
four thousand seven hundred and fifty persons. Of 




A Prayer foe Revenge. 



RELIEF WORK IN ARMENIA. 417 

these four are overseers, nine master-workmen, sixhun- 
dred and fifty eight spinners of cotton and wool, one 
hundred and fifteen weavers of cotton, thirty-seven 
weavers of woolen goods, and the remainder, carpet 
weavers, carders, spindle-fillers, sizers, knitters and 
sewers of clothing. The manufactures are coarse cot- 
ton cloth, woolen goods, carpets; a kind of heavy 
jacket worn by the villagers; socks, ready-made cloth- 
ing and bedding. The product from July to November 
was largely sold to the Sassoun Relief Commission, 
though small quantities were distributed here, chiefly 
among refugees. The supply is not nearly equal to the 
demand. 

In the Baking Department free bread is given regu- 
larly to four hundred and fifteen families or about two 
thousand five hundred persons. About one thousand 
five hundred persons have received rations for from a 
week to a month, while waiting to return to their vil- 
lages. The allowance per capita is one and a half 
pounds a day. Free bread is being given to the extent 
of three thousand pounds a day. 

At this time, in Harpoot there was still much un- 
relieved suffering. In the city the missionaries were 
giving one thousand five hundred rations of bread 
daily. The ladies distributed one thousand two hun- 
dred shirts and drawers, sixty pairs of stockings, one 
hundred and forty six mattresses, and two hundred 
quilts. These garments were manufactured by the 
destitute women, with regular wages of three or four 
cents a day. At Aintab the missionaries with the re- 
lief moneys were feeding three thousand two hundred 
and twenty-six persons, at Erzeroum two thousand five 
hundred, at Erzingan one thousand, and also large 
24 



418 RELIEF WORK IN ARMENIA. 

numbers at Falu, Diabekir, Oorfa, Arabkir, Malatia, 
Marash, Hadjin, Csesarea, and Sivas. 

By Christmas, 1895, generous responses came from all 
over the land, though by no means large enough to 
equal the necessities of the starving thousands scat- 
tered throughout the cities and towns and villages of 
Anatolia. 

This work of relief was conducted under extraordi- 
nary conditions, the Turkish Government hampering 
and opposing it at every point and making it clear to 
all the missionaries that the deliberate intent was tc 
allow the Armenians to die of cold and hunger. 

Abdul Hamid decreed that the Christians should be 
exterminated ; those who had survived the massacres at 
Moush, Sassoun, Dalvorig, Trebizond, Erzeroum and 
Harpoot, would die quietly if let alone. They were 
mere Christian dogs — all of them, and deserved to per- 
ish for the glory of Allah and his prophet. And when 
the missionaries, faithful to their duty, and at the risk 
of their own lives, continued to extend succor to the 
starving ones, their mission buildings were burned down, 
their converts slain and they themselves compelled to 
seek a place of shelter. 

Early in December, 1895, Miss Clara Barton, of 
Washington, President of the Red Cross Society, was 
requested to undertake relief work in Armenia, and as 
Turkey belonged to the Red Cross Association, it was 
thought that no obstacles would be placed in her way 
by the Sultan. Miss Barton quickly responded and 
prepared to take the field in person with a corps of 
trained workers, sailing from New York, Januar}' 22, 
1896. Upon her arrival at Constantinople the fullest 
permission was given for the entrance into Armenia of 



RELIEF WORK IN ARMENIA. 419 

the Red Cross party and an apparently active and 
generous effort was made towards making their en- 
deavors, journeys, etc., as safe and easy as possible. 
Miss Barton took with her many letters of great in- 
fluence addressed to the Turkish authorities and other 
persons in close contact with them, but in spite of this 
and the reiterated promise of the Turkish Foreign 
Minister to permit the distributors of relief to go to 
Anatolia, the necessary irades were withheld by the 
Sultan and for some time Miss Barton's work was 
limited to Constantinople. It was during this period 
that the Porte permanently prohibited several leading 
American newspapers from entering Turkey. 

Early in April, 1896, as the result of the incessant 
pressure brought to bear upon the Porte by Mr. J. W. 
Riddle, United States Charge' d' affaires, and Sir Philip 
Currie, British Ambassador, Tewfik Pasha, the Turkish 
Foreign Minister, gave assent to the demand that all 
relief afforded to the suffering Armenians by the 
agents of the Red Cross Society should be distributed 
unconditionally, with the exception of one provision, 
namely, that one member of the Turkish Relief Com- 
mission should be present. 

Miss Barton at once despatched one caravan with 
goods to Marash and followed it with another includ- 
ing eight physicians and apothecaries with medical sup- 
plies. At Marash, the destitution and misery were past 
human imagination. Cold, famine, smallpox and ty- 
phoid fever had carried off four thousand people and 
twelve thousand refugees were in need of food, cloth- 
ing and bedding. There was not a yard of cotton 
cloth in the place and no doctors. At Aintab, Oorfa, 
Harpoot and Zeitoun the needs were almost as great, 



420 RELIEF WORK IN ARMENIA. 

and to each of these points, goods and medical supplies 
were despatched and distributed by trustworthy Ameri- 
can residents and Miss Barton's Red Cross agents. 

Upwards of $70,000 were sent by cable from America 
to the missionaries in Armenia, through the American 
Board of Foreign Missions. Not one dollar of this 
amount was lost or failed to reach its proper field. In 
many instances the money was given out in the form of 
bread and clothing to the starving refugees in Asia, 
within forty-eight hours of the time of cabling it from 
New York. This fact should go far towards disarming 
the severe criticisms sometimes heard regarding the 
business management of missionary enterprises. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE CUKSE OF ISLAM. 
Dr. M. S. Gabriel. 

In Europe and America there is very little, if any, 
exact knowledge of what Mohammedanism means and 
who the Turks are. ■ The Christian subjects of Tur- 
key alone have the unfortunate opportunity of knowing 
well b.oth the Turk and his religion. And of all the 
Christian subjects of the Porte the Armenians have the 
profoundest understanding in this matter. In the case 
of the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox Christian, 
Turkish oppression has more or less been alleviated by 
the sympathy and protection of some one or the other 
of European Powers, while the Armenians, related to 
none of the great nations by close ties of either church 
or race, are absolutely friendless and have known the 
virulence of Moslem hatred in its utmost intensity. 

This remark, I hope, will caution those of my readers 
;vho, having heard of the " tolerant spirit " of Islam 
;md "the benign rule" of the Sultan, might think my 
description of them to be rather exaggerated. 

Of "the benign rule " of the Ottomans and the 
spirit of Islam I can speak from personal and intimate 
acquaintance. There can be no curse for a Christian 
nation as great as that of bearing the yoke of Moslem 
tyranny. Armenia has many times during her long 
national life seen foreign rule or supremacy, that, for 
instance, of the Romans, but not without .some consol- 

(423) 



424 THE CURSE OF ISLAM. 

ing advantage. The British, called the true Romans of 
modern times, carry some blessing to the countries they 
conquer or rule, although they conquer or rule in the 
commercial interests of their own. They are like but- 
terflies which fly from flower to flower in order to suck 
the honey, but, in so doing, they transfer to them the 
fertilizing pollen attached to their wings. 

What have the Turks brought into the Greek and 
Armenian centers of civilization in the Orient? Any 
commerce, or industry, or literature, or art, or science '? 
No, not a bit. They have come, sword in hand, bring- 
ing with them new vices and novel methods of torture. 
Since they established their rule in the East, Italy, in 
the West, had her literary Renaissance, Germairy her 
religious Reformation, France her great Revolution, 
each contributing to the cause of general civilization, 
and all Europe and America appear to-day gloriously 
transfigured, thanks to modern science and industry and 
art, while Turkey remains where she was five centuries 
ago. The task of the Turk has been not to enter him- 
self and not to allow his Christian subjects to enter 
into the path of progress. Whatever progress has been 
realized by the Armenians has been despite the syste- 
matic opposition of the Turkish government. The}' 
have smuggled, so to say, European elements of civiliza- 
tion into Armenia. But Armenian experience proved 
that it is vain, it is even dangerous, for Christians 
under Moslem rule to try to progress, to multiplj r 
schools and churches and colleges, to educate the chil- 
dren, to send the young men to the Unversities of 
Europe and America, to be economical and industrious, 
to grow rich and to be influential or merely to be born 
beautiful under the Turkish flag. The destruction of 



THE CURSE OF ISLAM. 425 

Armenia, after the general massacres of October and 
November last, is going on by starvation and exposure 
and sickness. Armenian progress is buried by Islam in 
the heaps of slaughtered bodies and under the ashes 
that cover her ruined and deserted villages. 

Why is the Turk so fiercely opposed to progress ? 
Why does he so bitterly hate the progressive Ar- 
menians ? Because, in the first place, he is Turkish ; 
and because, in the second place, he is Mohammedan. 

The Turk is not a member of the best human race — 
the Indo-European or Arian, like the Armenians. The 
Turk does not belong even to the next best of races, 
the Semitic, like the Jews and the Arabs. He is a 
branch of the Mongolian race, and, as such, incapable 
of assimilating complex ideas and higher forms of 
civilization. 

The mental inferiority of the Turk unfortunately 
matched with a religion of a very low order, has made 
of him what he is, worse than savages. 

There is much to say of the inferiority of Islam, but 
I shall confine myself to showing that the moral law of 
Islam is essentially immoral. 

This may seem to some too bold an assertion. Let 
us see. According to the Koran, the woman must be 
veiled lest any man look at her and lust after her. She 
is not to talk with any man other than her nearest 
relatives. A Moslem must not drink wine or liquor at 
all, in order that he may not drink too much. There 
should be no liberty of Press, nor of speech, nor of as- 
sociation, lest any seditious utterance or movement be 
the outcome. In a word, man must be watched from 
above, governed, repressed, in order that he may not 
have any occasion to sin. He is not to be left free, he 



420 THE CURSE OF ISLAM. 

is not to govern himself, but remain under tutelage, 
like a child. The consequence is that the Moslem is 
condemned to perpetual infancy as a moral creature ; 
his individuality, his will power remain undeveloped. 

Compare that with the moral law of Christianity. 
Christianity is the fight of man's deeper, true nature 
against his animal or lower nature. It is a healthful 
exercise by which his soul grows in grace and strength 
and will power, building up a Christlike character, that 
is the ideal of his life. The more he fights, the greater 
and surer becomes the supremacy of his higher nature 
over the lower. 

Just the reverse of this is the spiritual course of a 
Moslem. He does not aspire at all at purity or moral 
freedom, but, on the contrary, he believes that by cer- 
tain acts he can so please Allah and become his friend 
as to get the privilege of indulging in things forbidden 
to the common "faithful." I know this to be the be- 
lief among the learned Moslems. It has its ground in 
the Koran itself — in the fact that Mohammed the 
" Prophet " was granted such privileges. " O Prophet ! " 
says the Koranic oracle, " we have allowed thee thy 
wives, unto whom thou hast given their dower, and 
also the slaves which thy right hand possesseth, of the 
booty which God hath granted thee ; and the davghttrs 
of thy uncle, and the daughters of thy aunts, both on thy 
father s side and on thy mother s side, who have fled with 
thee from Mecca, and any other believing ivoman, if she 
give herself unto the prophet ; in case the prophet de- 
sireth to take her to wife. This is a peculiar privilege 
granted unto thee, above the rest of the true belvvers. 
(Koran, Chapter XXXIII.) Another privilege, neces- 
sitated by the above, is thus declared : " Thou mayest 



THE CURSE OF ISLAM. 427 

postpone the turn of such of thy wives as thou shalt 
please, in being called to thy bed ; and thou mayest 
take unto thee her whom thou shalt please . . . , and 
it shall be no crime in tlieeT A further affirmation of 
the peculiar privilege : " O Prophet, why boldest thou 
that to be prohibited which God hath allowed thee, 
seeking to please thy wives?" (Chapter LXVI.) 

Gratification of senses in this world under certain 
regulations, and unlimited gratification of senses in the 
paradise, with plenty of wine, without any danger of 
"headache," enjoying "wives free from impurity," and 
" fair damsels with large black eyes " result of "a pecu- 
liar creation "... remaining " virgins " though " be- 
loved by their husbands." (Chapter LVI.) Such is 
the ideal of the Moslem for the present life and the fu- 
ture. 

This is not mere theory. To be fully convinced of 
this, a Christian must live among the Turks, see their 
homes, attend to their festivals, visit their schools, 
watch their prayers, and become acquainted with their 
priests and princes. 

Did I say their "homes?" The Turk has no home 
in the European sense of the term, nor wife, nor 
schools, nor government. His prayers are gymnastics 
of lips and limbs. His charity is a mere show — as are 
his prayers, and often an act of cruelty. His school is 
a place where the spark of Tartaric intelligence is put 
out under the fuel of Koranic verses. His courts are 
stores where justice is sold by auction. His Govern- 
ment is an organized brigandage and his diplomacy, 
falsehood and shameless hypocrisy. 

Outsiders may think that the Turks will make some 
progress. No, there is no hope. As long as the Turks 



428 THE CURSE OF ISLAM. 

are faithful to the teachings of their sacred law, the 
only form of their Government will be absolute mon- 
archy, their only instrument the sword, and their ideal 
sensualism. 

For the present life the Turks have for centuries 
secured an abundance of sensual gratification, thanks 
to the sword, the great instrument recommended to 
them by their religion. Reserving for their pious selves 
the sword, they have left all other instruments to the 
" unbelievers." They have devoted themselves to the 
higher vocations of the State as soldiers, priests, judges, 
governors, and ministers, and if those careers are not 
easily open to any one, another noble profession, that of 
brigandage, is embraced, and in all cases, they have had 
plenty of income, gardens, palaces and wives. They 
have left to the Armenians all the low, hard or undig- 
nified work — to till the soil, to build houses and roads, 
bridges and palaces, to make shoes, clothes, rugs and 
carpets and all the rest. 

Thus the Turks led an existence full of pleasure, 
pride and luxury, and they degenerated ; while agricul- 
ture, commerce and industry which they despised made 
the Armenians comparatively prosperous, and the Chris- 
tian faith which the Turks hated, rendered the Arme- 
nian family great and healthy, and the Armenian com- 
munity stronger, having greater solidarity. In brief, 
Armenia appeared to the Turk like a little Europe 
rising in the very bosom of the Ottoman Empire. Al- 
ready in 1876 the Turkish newspapers of Constanti- 
nople were publishing editorials with regard to the 
alarming increase of the Armenians and the decrease of 
the Turks. The Sultan, Abdul-Hamid, who aimed, 
and still is aiming, to be a very great Padishah, de- 



THE CURSE OF ISLAM. 429 

voted himself to the task of readjusting the balance in 
favor of the Turks. His Khalific intelligence had 
nothing to do with causes. He never troubled himself 
with the complicated question why the Turks were not 
increasing, why a rich Moslem with three wives had no 
children, while a simple Christian artisan with one wife 
had three or four or half a dozen. To Hamid's mind 
the problem was veiy simple. Are the Armenians 
getting rich? he will plunder them. Have they organ- 
ized educational, religious or other benevolent associa- 
tions? he will scatter them. Have they bishops, pro- 
fessors and other leaders of high education ; and are 
they increasing in numbers? he will by exile and whole- 
sale massacres get rid of them. If anywhere any of 
them should venture to resist plunderers or defend the 
honor of their wives and daughters or kill any of his 
imperial brigands in self-defense, he will regard and de- 
clare them to Europe as rebels and treat them and the 
rest of their nation as such. His satanic accounts 
were quite well made up. Some Armenians did, from 
sheer exasperation and desperation, resist their foul 
aggressors. Hamid was glad. He ordered the annihi- 
lation of Sassoun in 1894. Successful in that, he, in 
1895, by the kind permission of Christian Europe and 
America, proceeded to destroy the Armenian nation and 
extirpate the Armenian Church by wholesale mas- 
sacres and forced conversions to Islam. 

The sword, even in the hands of the Turks, had 
never been used with such ferocity. The Turks sur- 
passed themselves in these late massacres. They dis- 
played to the world the bottom of their infernal foul- 
ness. Unable to use their sword against Europe, which 
has grown far too powerful for them, they used it to 



430 THE CURSE OF ISLAM. 

cut down the Armenian Europe in its bud.. And the 
consciousness of their impotence against the Great 
Powers intensified their cruelty and hatred with regard 
to the defenseless and unarmed Armenians. 

But all these frightful deeds of the Moslems do not 
surprise us. It is but natural that "a corrupt tree 
briugeth forth evil fruit." There is perfect harmony 
between these happenings and the Mohammedan faith. 
The surprise, the shock we experience when we think 
that the "Christian" Emperors of Russia, of United 
Germany, of Austria-Hungary, and the " Christian " 
Empress of Great Britain and India, and the " Chris- 
tian " Presidents of the United States and of France 
could prevent the massacres, and did not. They looked 
on. They are all, in various degrees, the accomplices 
of the criminal Turk. Is it to be supposed, logically, 
that while Hamid is acting in accordance with his re- 
ligious belief and the example of the " Prophet," cer- 
tain Christian princes have no sincere faith in Christ 
and his Gospel of love ? May the exhibition of Tslamic 
barbarity and blindness open the eyes of the " Chris- 
tians" to see the heavenly holiness of Christ! May 
the curse of Islam which has fallen upon Armenia as a 
deadly pestilence arouse the torpid conscience of Chris- 
tendom to a full appreciation of its sacred Book, its 
Christian homes, its free institutions and its religious 
liberty ! 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE GREATEST CRIME OE THE CENTURY. 

That the Powers of Europe, having their fleets ly- 
ing at anchor in the Mediterranean and the Black Seas 
within a day's sail of Constantinople, should stand by 
and permit the Sultan to slaughter the helpless Arme- 
nians by the tens of thousands is the greatest crime of 
the century. 

The mutual jealousies and distrusts and diverse am- 
bitions of the Powers of Europe have been as fatal and 
as horrible in result as the cruel wrath of a Nero, when 
for the first time he smote the early Christians with the 
clenched fist of the Roman Empire. Would that some 
hand could strip off the blood-soaked, dagger-pierced 
garments of nearly a hundred thousand martyred dead, 
and lay them at the feet of the nations who were con- 
senting unto their death. Far be it from us to attempt 
to divide, or measure, or weigh out the guilt that lies 
with common shame upon them all ; but that the bur- 
den rests with unequal weight upon the Powers a brief 
recital of some of the facts of history will show. 

In little more than three hundred (322) days the 
Russian Army had swept from the Danube, through 
Bulgaria, over the passes of the Balkans across the 
plains of Adrianople, breaking and scattering the power 
of the Turkish armies until in February, 1878, nearly 
one hundred thousand victorious troops encamped be- 
fore the gates of Constantinople which lay defeated 
and helpless at the feet of the conquering Czar. 

(433) 



434 THE GREATEST CRIME OF THE CENTURY. 

General Grant said that for Russia not to enter Con- 
stantinople at that conjuncture was the greatest mis- 
take a nation ever made. Could he have foreseen the 
misrule of the coming years culminating in the recent 
awful massacres, he would have called the failure a 
crime and not a blunder. 

But Alexander had not entered upon the war for the 
sake of conquest, but to punish Turkey for her crimes 
against the Bulgarians and to deliver them from her 
power. Hence the terms of the treat} 7 of San Stefano 
were specially in the interest of the subject Christian 
races that were under the rule of the Sublime Porte. 

The treaty established the independence and boun- 
daries of Montenegro, Servia and Roumania. It con- 
stituted Bulgaria an autonomous principality with a 
Christian government, a national militia, with fixed 
tribute ; its boundaries carefully defined, included over 
sixty-five thousand square miles with a population of 
nearly four million Christian people. The Ottoman 
army was to be withdrawn and the irregular forces, 
the Bashi-Bazouks and the Circassians were to be ab- 
solutely excluded from it. The Russian army of occu- 
pation was to consist of fifty thousand men to remain 
until the new government should be firmly established 
(for the term approximately of two years.) All Dan- 
nbian fortresses were to be razed and Bessarabia re- 
stored to Russia. Kars, Batoum, Ardahan, Ba} 7 azet and 
certain surrounding territory to be ceded to Russia, and 
Armenia to be guaranteed protection against Kurds and 
Circassians, and besides this territory, a war indem- 
nity of a paltry 1250,000,000. This is all that Russia 
claimed for herself at the close of a victorious cam- 
paign that had cost her £600,000,000 and the loss of 



THE GREATEST CRIME OF THE CENTURY. 435 

nearly one hundred thousand men. This was the sac- 
rifice she had offered to free her Bulgarian fellow- 
Christians from the power of the Turk. Russia was 
the master of the situation and had well earned the 
right to dictate her own terms when the Sultan sued 
for peace. 

Already the British Government had declared that 
they would not permit any power to interfere with the 
freedom of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, and 
that they should protect Constantinople from becoming 
the prize of conquest. The Parliament had been con- 
vened in January (17th) 1878, and in the Queen's 
speech there was this sentence : " I can not conceal 
from myself that should hostilities be unfortunately 
prolonged some unexpected occurrence may render it 
incumbent on me to adopt measures of precaution. 
Such measures could not be effectually taken without 
adequate preparation and I trust to the liberality of my 
Parliament to supply the means which may be required 
for that purpose." 

In the debate that followed the Marquis of Salisbury 
said, " If you will not trust the government provide 
yourselves a government you will trust." 

The danger flag was waved ominously bearing the 
insignia of the Russian bear. On February 8th, the 
House voted a war credit of an additional $30,000,000, 
and on the same day five British war vessels were or- 
dered to Constantinople. Troops were ordered to 
Malta from India, and Disraeli, the Premier, signifi- 
cantly declared " that in a righteous cause England 
would commence a fight that would not end till right 
was done." 

On March 17th, the ratifications of the treaty be- 



436 THE GREATEST CRIME OF THE CENTURY. 

tween Russia and Turkey were exchanged at St. Peters- 
burg. Now note the situation. Russia has but three 
or four towns and the fortress of Kars on the frontiers 
of Armenia, and the seaport of Batoum, from which to 
compel the Porte to protect the Armenians from Kurds 
and Circassians. But there is a Bulgaria freed from 
Turkish despotism. Four millions of Christians are 
given the privilege of self government while still trib- 
utary to the Porte. The frontier of Russia is restored 
as it was before the treaty of Paris by the addition of 
Bessarabia. This is the only political advantage to 
compensate for the expenditure of blood and treasure 
in the liberation of Bulgaria. What does England 
want ? What does she mean to fight for ? How is she 
injured ? The Dardanelles are opened for the free 
passage of merchant vessels both in peace and war. 
What right has she to interfere now that the treaty has 
been signed ? 

Yet on March 28th, the Disraeli government announ- 
ces that the first class of the Army reserve numbering 
thirteen thousand, and the militia reserve of about 
twenty-five thousand men were to be called out. This 
determination led to the resignation of Lord Derby as 
Foreign Secretary and the Marquis of Salisbury was 
appointed in his place. On April 1st, Salisbury ad- 
dressed a circular to the Powers, and after giving Rus- 
sia's refusal to consent to England's demand (by what 
right? ) relative to placing the treaty as a whole before 
the Congress — which Germany was endeavoring to se- 
cure to avoid another war — he goes on to complain of 
the terms imposed by Russia on Turkey : and the 
violation of the treaty of Paris, etc. Prince Gortchakoff 
in his reply among other questions asks Lord Salisbury 



THE GREATEST CRIME OF THE CENTURY. 439 

how he would reconcile these treaties with the benevo- 
lent ends to which the united action of Europe had al- 
ways been directed and the attainment of which one 
learns with pleasure the English government desires, 
namely, good government, peace and liberty for the op- 
pressed populations. 

Having allowed Russia single handed to chastise the 
Turks for the massacre of the Bulgarians — and we 
think that any one can see that she had clone it with neat- 
ness and despatch, and had delivered four million Chris- 
tians from the cursed rule of Islam, England now comes 
forward and demands that the treaty of San Stefano 
shall be broken and a new one made. We may well 
exclaim " Cui bono?" In whose interest? For the 
greater security of the Christians in Bulgaria? For 
larger liberty and protection to the Armenians from 
Kurds and Circassians, or the protection of the Balkan 
populations from Circassians and Bashi Bazouks? 

No indeed! Noble, Christian England in her sympa- 
thy for the suffering Bulgarians wanted a Congress 
called to give back into the hands of the Turk, Bashi- 
Bazouk and Circassian more than three million Chris- 
tians and forty thousand square miles of territory 
which might have formed the home of a strong, pro- 
gressive Christian nation under the terms of the San 
Stefano treaty. 

Having thus purposed to give back these millions into 
the jaws of the wolf, she yet desired to pose as the 
chief guardian of Armenia, and said to Turkey now 
give me Cyprus and I will protect you against Russia, 
and we can let Kurds and Circassians alone for awhile. 

Thus while urging a Congress of the Powers, already 
on June 4th, 1878, England had secured the Island of 
25 



440 THE GREATEST CRIME OF THE CENTURY. 

Cyprus, and alone Christian England had agreed to de- 
fend by force of arms the integrity and the independ- 
ence of the Turkish Dominions. 

On June 13th, the Congress was called, Prince Bis- 
marck occupying the presidential chair. Beaconsfield 
and Salisbury and the Ambassador at Berlin represent- 
ing England, Russia, Austria, France, Italy and Turkey 
also having their respective representatives. 

At the twentieth and last meeting held July 13th, 
the treaty of Berlin was signed. Thus by the conduct 
and the persistence of the English government alone 
was the calling of the Congress made necessary or possi- 
ble, and by the spirit of England was the Congress 
dominated, and its final deliverances controlled. At the 
behest of England were millions of Bulgarians and Ar- 
menians handed over again to the tender mercies of the 
wicked Turk, and Russia was robbed of the glory of her 
victories. 

An international crime like this must cry to Heaven 
for vengeance and the most powerful and enlightened 
nation that insisted on it and forced it through is also 
the most guilty. On their return to England Beacons- 
field and Salisbury received an ovation, and the Queen 
conferred the Order of the Garter on these two Lords 
who had delivered the lives and welfare of millions of 
Christians back into the hands of the unspeakable Turk. 

That England's attitude has not been too strongly 
emphasized, read this quotation from Lord Salisbury's 
summing up of the situation in 1879: 

"The Sultan's dominions he informed the Powers 
have been provided with a defensible frontier far re- 
moved from his capital. * * Rich and extensive 
provinces have been restored to his rule, at the same 



THE GREATEST CRIME OF THE CENTURY. 441 

time that careful provision against future misgovern- 
ment has been made which will, it may be hoped as- 
sure their loyalty, and prevent the recurrence of calami- 
ties which have brought the Ottoman Power to the 
verge of ruin. Arrangements of a different kind, hav- 
ing the same end in view, have provided for the Asiatic 
dominions of the Sultan security for the present, and 
hope of prosperity and stability in the future. Whether 
use will be made of this, probably the last opportunity 
which has thus been obtained for Turkey by the inter- 
position of the Powers of Europe, of England in partic- 
ular, (note this phrase) or whether it is to be thrown 
away, will depend upon the sincerity with which Turk- 
ish statesmen now address themselves to the duties of 
good government and the task of reform." 

One would suppose from the terms of the treaties 
that the Bulgarian war had been undertaken for the 
sole and express purpose of establishing and assuring 
the integrity and independence of Turkey, the entrench- 
ment of the Bashi Bazouks in Bulgaria and for protect- 
ing the fierce wolves that dwell in the mountains of 
Kurdestan from the helpless lambs that infest the val- 
leys of Armenia. In Russia the Berlin Treaty called 
out the most indignant disapprobation. It was said to 
be " a colossal absurdity, a blundering failure, an im- 
pudent outrage." The nation had been robbed of all 
reward for the sacrifices she had made in the name 
of humanity: and before the people Alexander had been 
humiliated. He saw the incompleteness of his work, 
felt his inability to deal with the forces that were at 
that time massed against him and felt bitterly the re- 
proach of the army and of those who had suffered the loss 
of kindred and friends in a useless and expensive war. 



442 THE GREATEST CRIME OF THE CENTURY. 

Russian diplomacy at Berlin was felt to be more dis- 
astrous than the war, while the nation had been decked 
with a fool's cap and bells and their honor trampled 
under foot. 

England had taken on her hands a most difficult task, 
viz: To be the Protector of the Armenians, while at 
the same time she wore the belt as champion defender 
of Turkey against all comers. The Protector of the 
Christians, and the Christian Champion of Islam ! ! 

TREATY OF BERLIN. 

Art. LXI. The sublime Porte undertakes to carry 
out, without further delay, the improvements and re- 
forms demanded by local requirements in the provinces 
inhabited by the Armenians, and to guarantee their se- 
curity against the Circassians and Kurds. It will peri- 
odically make known the steps taken to this effect to 
the Powers, who will superintend their application. 

ANGLO-TURKISH (CYPRUS) CONVENTION. 

Art. I. If Batoum, Ardahan, Kars, or any of them 
shall be retained by Russia, and if any attempt shall be 
made at any future time by Russia to take possession 
of any further territory of His Imperial Majesty, the 
Snltan, in Asia, as fixed by the Definitive Treaty of 
Peace, England engages to join His Imperial Majesty, 
the Sultan, in defending them by force of arms. 

In return, His Imperial Majesty, the Sultan, promises 
to England to introduce necessary reforms, to be agreed 
upon later between the two Powers, into the Government 
and for the protection of the Christian and other sub- 
jects of the Porte in these territories ; and in order to 



THE GREATEST CRIME OF THE CENTURA. 445 

enable England to make necessary provisions for exe- 
cuting her engagement, His Imperial Majesty, the 
Sultan, further consents to assign the Island of Cyprus 
to be occupied and administered by England. 

The Anglo-Turkish Convention having been made 
June 4th, and the Berlin Treaty not being signed until 
July 13th, places priority (may we not almost say en- 
tirety ?) of obligation upon England, which obligation 
with all that it implies she fully and alone accepted 
when she accepted the island of Cyprus as a necessary 
base of operations and a promise and pledge of good 
faith. 

The Berlin Treaty did not release England from this 
distinct and individual obligation nor did she wish to 
divide the honor of being the defender of the Arme- 
nian Christians. It may be questioned whether she 
had any right to expect anything more from the other 
signatory Powers than their moral support in any at- 
tempted enforcement of its terms. 

Passing by the first part of Art. I. in the Anglo - 
Turkish Convention the reader is asked to give special 
attention to the wording of the second part: "In re- 
turn, His Imperial Majesty, the Sultan, promises to 
England to introduce necessary reforms to be agreed 
vpon later between the two Powers, into the Government 
and for the protection of the Christian and other sub- 
jects of the Porte in these territories." 

With that clause inserted " to be agreed upon later " 
how could Lord Salisbury possibly dream, let alone say 
" that careful provision against future misgovernment 
has been made " ? Absolutely no provision had been 
made to protect Armenia from Kurd or Circassian or 
the rapacity and cruelty and outrage of Turkish ofii- 



446 THE CREATEST CRIME OF THE CENTURY. 

cials. And none could be made unless these two 
Powers alone, England and the Porte could agree upon 
the nature of the reforms and the manner in which they 
should be carried out. Was any promise, pledge or 
convention ever written that actually meant less? 
Was this honest British Statesmanship actually deter- 
mining that something should be done ? or was it 
shrewd Turkish diplomacy that will promise anything 
in the bond but withdraw it in the terms of later stipu- 
lations? Or was it understood that it was merely dust 
for the eyes of Christian Europe ? 

The following incident in the career of Gen. B. F. 
Butler was given as a newspaper item. In the course 
of a very spirited conversation one day a gentleman 
called him a knave. The general smiled and replied, 
" Well, did you ever hear anybody say that I was a 
fool ? " Somebody was surely fooled by this conven- 
tion. Who was it? Not Russia and certainly not the 
Turk. Who then ? Salisbury ? or England ? 

There were many men even in England who did not 
hesitate to express hottest indignation against the 
policy of the Government regarding her dealings with 
Turkey. Here are paragraphs from " The Ottoman 
Power in Europe " by the English historian E. A. 
Freeman : 

"The England of Canning and Codrington, the 
England of Byron and Hastings has come to this, that 
the world knows us as the nation which upholds oppres- 
sion for the sake of its own interests. We have indeed 
a national sin to redress and atone for. We are verily 
guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the an- 
guish of his soul when he besought us and we would 
not hear. Na}^, our guilt is deeper still. We have not 



THE GEEATEST CRIME OP THE CENTURY. 447 

merely looked on and passed by on the other side, but 
we have given our active help to the oppressors of our 
brothers. We have " upheld " the foulest fabric of 
wrong that earth ever saw, because it was deemed that 
the interests of England were involved in upholding 
the wrong and trampling down the right. * * * * 

" Our national crime is that we have upheld the Turk 
for our own supposed interests. For these we have 
doomed the struggling nations to abide in their bond- 
age. We have doomed them to stay under a rule un- 
der which the life and property of the Christian, the 
honor of his wife, the honor of his children of both 
sexes alike are at every moment at the mercy of the 
savages whom our august and cherished ally honors and 
promotes in proportion to the blackness of their deeds. 
We have for our own interests upheld the power which 
has done its foul and bloody work in Chios, at Damas- 
cus and in Bulgaria, which is still doing the same foul 
and bloody work wherever a victim may be found. 
We uphold the power whose daily work is massacre 
and worse than massacre. It matters not whether ten 
thousand or twenty thousand perish. We are still to 
uphold the slaughterer, for it is to our interest that he 
should not be shorn of his power of slaughtering. 

" Now if there be any such thing as right and wrong 
in public affairs, if moral considerations are ever to 
come in to determine the actions of nations, it is hard 
to see how there can be deeper national guilt than 
this. Unjust wars, aggressions and conquests are bad 
enough, but they are hardly so bad as the calm, unblush- 
ing upholding of wrong for our own interests. * * * * 
We look on, we count the cost, we see how the wrong- 
doer deals with his victim and we determine to uphold 



448 THE GREATEST CRIME OP THE CENTURA. 

the wrong-doer because we think that to uphold him 
will suit some interest of our own. There is no ques- 
ion of national glory, no question of national honor ; 
nothing which can stir up even a false enthusiasm. It 
is a calm mercantile calculation that the wrongs of 
millions of men will pay. 

" The revenue returns of Egypt for 1890 were over 
$50, 000, 000. If we knew how large a part of this 
went to bondholders in London, we would know some- 
thing about England's interest in Egypt. If we knew 
how large a portion of the Turkish debt of above 
$500,000,000, is held in London, we would know some- 
thing about the interest the British government has in 
maintaining the integrity of Turkey. 

" England wouldn't care if that Turkey were carved 
to-morrow if only she could hold Constantinople and 
administer on the dead Sultan's estate until all the 
obligations she holds should be paid off. She would 
rather like to occupy Stamboul on those conditions- 
Armenia, Kurds, Circassians and all." 

But to return from our digression which was meant 
to show something of the nature of the interest En- 
gland had in bringing Bulgaria again under Turkish rule 
and taxation, we remark that with this Cypress Con- 
vention already a deed accomplished what other Euro- 
pean powers would care a fig about seeing to the exe- 
cution of possible reforms in Armenia. What hap- 
pened is notorious. A few ineffectual attempts to 
agree upon reforms and when agreed upon many ex- 
cuses for not carrying them out and there the whole 
matter of reform was practically dropped ; but Cypress 
was retained as counsel fees possibly for securing such 
a favorable revision of the terms of the San Stefano 



THE GREATEST CRIME OE THE CENTtJKY. 440 

Treaty in the interests of Turkey — of the Moslem not 
of the Christian. 

For the sake of retaining influence with the Sublime 
Porte and to outwit the possible plans and intrigues 
of the Russian Ambassador, scared by visions in the 
night of some muscovite move towards Constantinople- 
England for fifteen years connived at a state of things 
which was decimating and impoverishing the provinces 
of Armenia, and costing more lives and causing more 
suffering in the aggregate than the massacres of Sas- 
soun. 

Often the question was asked, "Where is England's 
guarantee to Armenian and Macedonian Christians 
now ? " The Russian press was not slow to give 
prominence to these reports of continually increasing 
oppressions and pillage, of outrage and murder. 

But nothing pierced the political-commercial con- 
science of England until tidings of the most horrible 
massacres committed three months before began to creep 
over the mountains of Armenia and find their way to 
England and America. 

When for very shame they could shut their ears to 
the clamor no longer the British Government demanded 
a commission — it's great on commissions. The British 
Ambassador intimated to the Porte that if steps 
were not taken to satisfy her Majesty's Government 
that the Sultan's promise (respecting the commission) 
would be fulfilled, "they might find it necessary to in- 
quire into the treatment of the Armenians, and that 
they might also be forced to publish the consular re- 
ports from the Asiatic provinces which had been so 
long withheld!" 

What fires of shame should burn on cheek and fore- 



450 THE GREATEST CRIME OP THE CENTURY. 

head of the English Government that nothing had been 
done to stop those outrages till indifference and in- 
activity had given the impression that nobody cared 
what became of the Armenians. 

At last the heart of England flamed out in pity and 
her conscience fired the brain to hot and earnest and 
even vehement utterance, and hundreds of public meet- 
ings were held. Instinctively all eyes turned to Glad- 
stone to voice the sorrow, the pity or the indignation of 
a Christian people who felt themselves in some 
measure responsible for the deliverance of Armenia from 
further horrors. 

GLADSTONE ON ARMENIA'S FATE. 

At a meeting held in the Town Hall, Chester, En- 
gland, a great many members of Parliament being 
present, the Duke of Westminster presiding, Mr. Glad- 
stone spoke (in part) as follows : 

" My Lord Duke, my Lord and Ladies and Gen- 
tlemen : 
" It is perfectly true that the Government whose 
deeds we have to impeach is a Mohammedan Govern- 
ment, and it is perfectly true that the sufferers under 
those outrages, under those afflictions, are Christian 
sufferers. The Mohammedan subjects of Turkey suffer 
a great deal, but what they suffer is only in the way of 
the ordinary excesses and defects of an intolerably bad 
Government — perhaps the worst on the face of the 
earth. (Hear, hear.) I will take the libert}^ of reading 
a resolution which has been placed in my hands and 
which seems to me to express with firmness, but with 
moderation, the opinions which I am very confident 



THE GREATEST CRIME OF THE CENTURY. 451 

this meeting will entertain, and this meeting, in enter- 
taining such opinions, is but the representative of the 
country at large. (Cheers.) 

" Allow me to go further and to say that the country at 
large in entertaining these ideas is only a representative 
of civilized humanity, and I will presume to speak on 
the ground, in part, of personal knowledge, of the 
opinions and sympathies that are entertained among 
our own Transatlantic brethren of the United States. 
If possible, the sentiment in America entertained on 
the subject of these recent occurrences is even more 
vivid and even stronger, if it can be, than that which 
beats in the hearts of the people of this country. 

" The terms of the resolution are as follows : 

" ' That this meeting expresses its conviction that her 
Majesty's Government will have the cordial support of 
the entire nation, without distinction of party, in any 
measures which it may adopt for securing to the people 
of Turkish Armenia such reforms in the administration 
of that province as shall provide effective guarantees 
for the safety of life, honor, religion, and property, and 
that no reforms can be effective which are not placed 
under the continuous control of the Great Powers of 
Europe.' (Cheers.) 

" That means, without doubt, the Great Powers of 
Europe, all who choose to combine, and those great 
Powers which happily have combined and have already, 
in my judgment, pledged their honor as well as their 
power to the attainment of the object we have in view. 
(Cheers.) 

"Now, it was my fate, I think six or more months ago, 
to address a very limited number, not a public assembly, 
but a limited number of Armenian gentlemen, and 



452 THE GREATEST CHIME OE THE CENTURY. 

gentlemen interested in Armenia on this subject. 
There was no authoritative and impartial declaration 
before the world at that period on the subject of what 
is known as the Sassoun massacre ; that massacre to 
which the Noble Duke has alluded and with respect to 
which, horrible as that massacre was, one of the most 
important witnesses in this case declares that it is 
thrown into the shade and has become pale and in- 
effective by the side of the unspeakable horrors which 
are being enacted from month to month, from week to 
week, and clay to day in the different provinces of 
Armenia. (Hear, hear.) It was a duty to avoid pre- 
mature judgment, and I think it was avoided. But 
though it is a duty to avoid exaggeration, a most sacred 
duty, it is a duty that has little or no place in the case 
before us, because it is too well known that the powers 
of language hardly suffice to describe what has been 
and is being clone, and that exaggeration, if we were 
ever so much disposed to it, is in such a case really be- 
yond our power. (Cheers.) Those are dreadful words 
to speak. It is a painful office to perform, and nothing 
but a strong sense of duty could gather us together be- 
tween these walls or could induce a man of my age and 
a man who is not wholly without other difficulties to 
contend with to resign for the moment that repose and 
quietude which is the last of many great earthly bless- 
ings remaining to him in order to invite you to enter 
into a consideration of this question. What witnesses 
ought we to call before us ? I should be disposed to 
say that it matters very little what witness you call. 
So far as the character of the testimony you will re- 
ceive is concerned the witnesses are all agreed. At the 
time that I have just spoken of, six or eight months 



THE GREATEST CRIME OF THE CENTURY. 455 

ago, they were private witnesses. Since that time, al- 
though we have not seen the detailed documents of 
public authority, yet we know that all the broader 
statements which had been made up to that time and 
which have made the blood of this nation run cold have 
been confirmed and verified. They have not been over- 
stated, not withdrawn, not qualified, not reduced, but 
confirmed in all their breadth, in all that horrible sub- 
stance, in all their sickening details. (Hear, hear.) 

"I will refer to the last of these witnesses, one whom 
I must say I am disposed to name with honor, it is Dr. 
Dillon, a man who, as the special commissioner of the 
Daily Telegraph newspaper, some months ago with care 
and labor, and with the hazard of his life (hear, hear), 
went into Turkey, laudably making use of a disguise 
for the purpose, and went into Armenia, so that he 
might make himself thoroughly master of the facts. 
(Cheers.) He published his results before any public 
authority had given utterance to its judgments and 
those results which he, I rather think, was the first to 
give to the world in a connected shape — at any rate he 
was very early in the field — those results have been 
completely confirmed and established by the inquiries 
of the delegates appointed by the three Powers — En- 
gland, France and Russia. (Cheers.) I say he has, at 
the risk of his life, acquired a title to be believed, and 
(in the Contemporary Review*) he gives us an ac- 
count which bears upon it all the marks of truth, but 
which, at the same time that we must believe it to be 
true, you would say is hardly credible. Unhappily 
some of those matters which are not credible do, in 
this strange and wayward world of ours, turn out to be 
true; and here it is hardly credible that there can 



456 THE GREATEST CRIME OF THE CENTURY. 

dwell in the human form a spirit of such intense and 
diabolical wickedness as is unhappily displayed in some 
of the narratives Dr. Dillon has laid before the world. 
I shall not quote from them in detail though I mean to 
make a single citation, which will be a citation, if I may 
say so, rather of principle than of detail. I shall not 
quote the details, but I will say to you that when you 
begin to read them you will see the truth of what I just 
now said — namely that we are not dealing at all with a 
common and ordinary question of abuses of govern- 
ment or the defects of them. We are dealing with 
something that goes far deeper, far wider, and that im- 
poses upon us and upon you far heavier obligations. 

"The whole substance of this remarkable article may 
be summed up in four awful words — plunder, murder, 
rape and torture. (' Shame.') Every incident turns 
upon one or upon several of those awful words. Plun- 
der and murder you would think are bad enough, but 
plunder and murder are almost venial by the side of 
the work of the ravisher and the work of the torturer, 
as it is described in these pages, and as it is now fully 
and authentically known to be going on. I will keep 
my word, and I will not be tempted by — what shall I 
say ? — the dramatic interests attached to such exaggera- 
tion of human action as we find here to travel into the 
details of the facts. They are fitter for private perusal 
than they are for public discussion. In all ordinary 
cases when we have before us instances of crime, per- 
haps of very horrible crime — we at once assume that in 
all countries, unfortunately, there are malefactors, 
there are plunderers whose deeds we are going to con- 
sider. Here, my lord duke, it is nothing of the kind ; 
we have nothing to do here with what are called the 



THE GREATEST CRIME OF THE CENTURY. 457 

dangerous classes of the community ; it is not their 
proceedings which you are asked to consider ; it is the 
proceedings of the Government of Constantinople and 
its agents. (Cheers.) 

" There is not one of these misdeeds for which the 
Government at Constantinople is not morally respon- 
sible. (Cheers.) Now, who are these agents? Let 
me tell you very briefly. They fall into three classes. 
The first have been mentioned by the noble duke — 
namely the savage Kurds, who are, unhappily, the neigh- 
bors of the Armenians, the Armenians being the rep- 
resentatives of one of the oldest civilized Christian races, 
and being beyond all doubt one of the most pacific, one 
of the most industrious, and one of the most intelligent 
races in the world. (Cheers.) These Kurds are by 
them ; they are wild, savage clans, organized as bands 
of robbers. These the Sultan and the Government at 
Constantinople have enrolled, though in a nominal 
fashion, not with a military discipline, into pretended 
cavalry regiments and then set them loose with the 
authority of soldiers of the Sultan to harry and de- 
stroy the people of Armenia. (Cheers.) Well, these 
Kurds are the first of the agents in this horrible 
business ; the next are the Turkish soldiers, who are in 
no sense behind the Kurds in their performances ; the 
third are the peace officers, the police and the tax 
gatherers of the Turkish Government; and there seems 
to be a deadly competition among all these classes 
which shall most prove itself an adept in the horrible 
and infernal work that is before them, but above them 
and more guilty than they, are the higher officers of the 
Turkish Government. 

"I think there are certain matters, such as those 



458 THE GEEATEST CEIME OF THE CENTURY. 

which have been discussed to-day and discussed in 
many other forms, on which it is perfectly possible to 
make up our minds. And what I should say is, that 
the whole position may be summed up in three brief 
propositions. I do not know to which of these propo- 
sitions to assign the less or the greater importance. 
It appears to me that they are probably each and every 
one of them absolutely indispensable. The first prop- 
osition is this, You ought to moderate your demands. 
You ought to ask for nothing but that which is strictly 
necessary, and that possibly according to all that we 
know of the proposals before us, the rule has been 
rigidly complied with. I do not hesitate to saj r , ladies 
and gentlemen, that the cleanest and clearest method 
of dealing with this subject, if we should have done it, 
would have been to tell the Turk to march out of Ar- 
menia. (Loud cheers.) He has no right to remain 
there, and it would have been an excellent settlement 
of the question. But it is by no means certain that 
Europe or even the three Powers would have been 
unanimous in seeking after that end. Therefore, let 
us part with everything except what is known to be in- 
dispensable. Then I come to the other two rules, and 
of these the first is that you should accept no Turkish 
promises. (Hear, hear.) They are absolutely and 
entirely worthless. They are worse than worthless, be- 
cause they may serve to delude a few persons who, with- 
out information or experience, naturally would suppose, 
when promises are given, that there is something like an in- 
tentional fulfilment. Recollect that no scheme is worth 
having unless it be supported by efficient guarantees en- 
tirely outside the promises of the Turkish Government. 
(Applause.) There is another word which I must speak, 



THE GEEATEST CRIME OF THE CENTURY. 461 

and it is this : Don't be too much afraid if you hear in- 
troduced into this discussion a word that I admit, in 
ordinary cases, ought to be excluded from all diplomatic 
proceeding, namely, the word coercion. Coercion is a 
word perfectly well understood in Constantinople, and 
it is a word highly appreciated in Constantinople. It 
is a drastic dose — (laughter) — which never fails of its 
aim when it is administered in that quarter. (Laughter.) 
Gentlemen, I would not use these words if I had not 
myself personally had large and close experience of the 
proceedings of the Turkish Government. I say, first 
make your case good, and when your case is made 
good, determine that it shall prevail. (Cheers.) 
Grammar has something to do with this case. Recol- 
lect that while the word 'ought' sounded in Constan- 
tinople, passes in thin air, and has no force or solidity 
whatever attaching to it ; on the contrary, the brother 
or sister monosyllable, the word ' must ' is perfectly 
understood — (cheers) — and it is a known fact supported 
by positive experience, which can be verified upon the 
map of Europe, that a timely and judicious use of the 
word never fails for its effect. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, 
I must point out to you that we have reached a very 
critical position indeed. How are three great Govern- 
ments in Europe, ruling a population of more than two 
hundred million souls, with perhaps eight or ten times 
the population of Turkey, with twenty times the wealth 
of Turkey, with fifty times the influence and power of 
Turkey, who have committed themselves in this matter 
before the world, I put it to you that if they recede be- 
fore an irrational resistance — and remember that I have 
in the first instance postulated that our demands should 
be reasonable— if they recede before the irrational re- 
26 



462 THE GREATEST CRIME OF THE CENTURY. 

sistance of the Sultan and the Ottoman Government 
they are disgraced in the face of the world. Every 
motive of duty coincides with every motive of self re- 
spect, and, my lord duke, yourself let drop a word 
which is a frightful word, unhappily not wholly out of 
place, the word 

* EXTERMINATION.' 

There has gone abroad, I don't say that I feel myself 
competent to judge the matter, I don't think I do, but 
there has gone abroad and there is widely entertained 
a belief that the recent proceedings of the Turkish 
Government in Armenia particularly, but not in Ar- 
menia exclusively, are founded upon deliberate deter- 
mination to exterminate the Christians in that Empire. 
I hope it is not true, but at the same time I must say 
that there are evidences tending to support it — (hear, 
hear) — and the grand evidence which tends to support 
it is this : the perfect infatuation of the Turkish Gov- 
ernment. The Turkish Government is evidently in 
such a state of infatuation that it is fain to believe it 
may, under certain circumstances, be infatuated enough 
to scheme the extermination of the Christian popula- 
tion. Well, this is a sad and terrible story, and I have 
been a very long time in telling it, but a very small 
part of it, but I hope that, having heard the terms of 
the resolution that will be submitted to you, you will 
agree that a case is made out. (Cheers.) I for one, for 
the sake of avoiding other complications, would rejoice 
if the Government of Turkey would come to its senses. 
That is, in my opinion, what we ought all to desire, and 
though it would be more agreeable to clear Turkey than 
to find her guilty of these terrible charges, yet if we 



THE GREATEST CEIME OF THE CENTURY. 4G3 

have the smallest regard to humanity, if we are sensi- 
ble at all of what is due to our own honor after the 
steps which have been taken within the last twelve or 
eighteen months, we must interfere. We must be care- 
ful to demand no more than what is just — but at least 
as much as is necessary — and we must be determined 
thaf, with the help of God that which is necessary, and 
that which is just shall be done, whether there will be 
a response or whether there be none." (Loud cheers.) 

In a letter written late in March, to the Duke of 
Argyle, chairman of the Armenian Relief Committee, 
Mr. Gladstone said, " that he hopes that nobody will 
suppose that deplorable and ignominious failure of 
Europe to do her duty in Armenia will in any way di- 
minish the force of the present appeal (for aid) to 
Christian pity." 

But what about this deplorable and ignominious fail- 
ure of Europe to do her duty ? Lord Salisbury has 
gravely assured the nation that England is utterly pow- 
erless to alleviate the lot of the Armenians in Turkey. 
If this be true and the Porte should choose to finish his 
work of extermination, must all the world stand b}- and 
see it done and no arm be raised to defend the help- 
less? If so, woe to the world when the Lord God of 
hosts shall arise to avenge the blood of a slaughtered 
race. 

When the first rumors of a massacre at Sassoun was 
confirmed in all essential details, the Government had 
to act quickly and somewhat decidedly, to avoid a 
spelling storm of indignation, that might break with 
serious effect upon their heads. 

Two courses of action were open to England, either 
to use all her power of persuasion, with some strong 



464 THE GREATEST CRIME OF THE CENTURY. 

language, by way of emphasis, to induce the Porte to 
bring the officials to justice and obtain a guarantee that 
no such massacres should be permitted in the future, or 
sound an alarm and call on all the Powers of Europe 
for an armed intervention, in which case she must be 
ready to cast in her heaviest weight of men and metal. 
As the responsibility for the terrible state of affairs in 
Armenia was due to England's neglect, in not enforc- 
ing reforms, essential to prevent such awful scenes, she 
should have secured from the Powers their consent to 
let her thrash the Turks in Constantinople and Anatolia, 
while the fleets anchored in the Bosphorus to protect 
the " balance of power " when the deed was done. 

A guarantee from the Powers, that England would 
not be permitted to occupy Constantinople, might have 
satisfied Russia, or have prevented any interference in 
the carrying out the purpose of delivering the Arme- 
nians from further outrages and massacres. In that 
case the dissolution of "the Sick Man" might have' 
been the solution of the Eastern question. 

At least unless England knew that the Powers would 
stand by her the threat of using force was stupid folly. 
A conference of the Powers was a necessity and the 
pledge of concurrence or armed neutrality should have 
been given before she began to bait the Sultan. It has 
been known for years that the Sultan is the last man to 
be controlled by mere sentiment. He only yields to 
necessity, to force actually present, to guns trained upon 
him. He was never scared by all the letters and the 
threats of the English Government. He knew the 
Powers were not agreed to use force. 

Sir Philip Currie telegraphed to Lord Kimberley: 

" I impressed upon His Excellency (said Pasha) as 




;,:;,.; ■■,;> ' 



....... ..;, :<iilllllM 



THE GREATEST CRIME OE THE CENTURY. 46? 

forcibly as I could that the only safe course for the 
Turkish Government was to authorize the Commission 
to make a fair and impartial inquiry ; that failing this 
they would be held responsible for the cruelties perpe- 
trated on the Armenians by the local authorities, and 
that the feeling aroused in Europe was such that if 
these cruelties were not punished, active interference 
from without must be looked for." 

This was an earnest, urgent, emphatic, even threat- 
ening appeal: but where was there any warrant for the 
last threat ? There was no ultimatum ready. No na- 
tion was going to take up arms against Turkey, En- 
gland least of all. There was no agreement among 
them to let England take up the task alone. If there 
had been, one battleship before Constantinople would 
have brought the massacres to a speedy close and could 
have compelled the punishment of the Governors in 
every vilayet where the horrors of Sassoun had been 
repeated with increased torment and misery. But the 
fact remains, and the fact is the thing emphasized, 
that England and all the Signatory Powers sat in mas- 
terly inactivity though with steam up at Salonica and 
let the deadly work go on. There is only time to notice 
one question, " Why did not Russia agree to the forc- 
ing the Dardanelles and coercing the Turks ? The 
blame for the fiasco must fall upon Russia." 

How so ? Could you reasonably expect Russia to 
assist England in performing her promises to protect 
Armenia when you remember the humiliation of the 
Berlin Treaty ? If England entered into engagements 
she was powerless to make good, whose fault was that? 
And when the implicit appeal was to her Chris- 
tian sympathy the Russians replied in their press : 



•468 THE GREATEST CRIME OF THE CENTURY. 

" Where were all these glorious virtues of Englishmen 
when Lord Beaconsfield handed back the Christian sub- 
jects of the Sultan to the dismal fate which has only 
now begun to excite their pity, when an improvement 
would suit their policy and further their designs ? If 
England continued to be both humane and Christian 
while suppressing those noble impulses eighteen years 
ago, it is hard to understand why we can not remain 
both, while holding them in control to-day." 

To those who deny to Russia any disinterested 
motives of Christian sympathy in her war with Turkey 
to deliver Bulgaria from the horrible misrule of the 
Sultan, this refusal will furnish only another illustra- 
tion of her being what they consider her, viz : a half- 
civilized nation. 

But for England to look to a Power she considers 
her mortal enemy as regards the occupation of Constan- 
tinople, for help to rescue the Armenians from Kurd 
and Circassian and Turkish regulars, set upon them by 
the Porte, is the sublimity of political innocence, or the 
confession of utter weakness. 

The Russian Bear smiled at the innocence, and with 
grim satisfaction, perhaps, allowed the Turk to wave 
back the fleets of the allied Powers from the straits of 
the Dardanelles and continue his fiendish massacres. 

Weigh each for himself the responsibility of each of 
the Great Powers in any scales he may choose, dis- 
tribute the guilt by a different judgment, and }-et the 
failure of these Christian nations to unite for the deliv- 
erance of Christian Armenia from the barbarous and 
cruel, most lustful and brutal outrages under which 
they were suffering, will be stamped by histoiy as the 
most awful crime against humanity upon which the sun 



the greatest crime of the century. 469 

ever gazed during all the passing years of the nine 
tee nth century, and only to be paralleled by the apathy 
of Western Europe, when alone in 1453 Constantinople 
fought her last battle for the cross and fell under the 
sword and power of Islam. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

America's duty and privilege. 

Our self-imposed task to voice as clearly and 
strongly as we could the History and Horrors of Arme- 
nia under the Curse of Islam is nearly finished. For 
many weeks the fires have burned hot within us, and 
the daily news from the land of sorrows has only 
made our heart beat more rapidly and our pen fly the 
faster that our appeal might reach your ears while yet 
there was time to save from utter destruction a rem- 
nant of this most ancient Christian people of whom 
two hundred thousand now look to England and 
America for daily bread. 

"The Armenians are the representatives of one of 
the oldest civilized Christian races, being beyond all 
doubt one of the most pacific, one of the most indus- 
trious, and one of the most intelligent races in the 
world." — Gladstone. 

In- all the history of the Roman Empire, from Nero 
down to the days of Constantine, there is no chap- 
ter so cruel, so terrible as the atrocious crimes of the 
present Turkish Empire. These massacres have been 
committed at the command of the Sultan, and with 
flourish of trumpets, as at Zilleh, when at noon Novem- 
ber 28, 1895, the trumpet was blown and the Turks 
began to assault the Christians with the cry, "Down 
with Armenians. This is the Sultan's order." 

This is the Curse of Islam that it makes it the re- 
(470)* 



America's duty and privilege. 471 

ligious duty of every follower of the prophet, from 
the Sultan down to the howling dervishes, to hate the 
Christians, to kill and plunder, rob, outrage and torture 
every one who will not accept the faith of Mohammed. 
The evident intention of the Sultan is to utterly destroy 
and exterminate the Christian people in Armenia. 

It is reserved for the dawning of the twentieth 
century to see all the horrors of the conquests of Tamer- 
lane repeated, and to realize for itself what these Chris- 
tian races have suffered since the fateful year 1453, 
when Constantinople, the glory of Eastern Europe, fell 
a prey to hordes of the Ottoman Turks. It is because 
he has outdone the cruelties of all the ages that caused 
the foremost of living English poets to stigmatize the 
reigning Sultan as " Abdul, the Damned." 

In our helplessness we can only take refuge, per- 
haps, under the arms of the Almighty. Justice and 
judgment are the habitations of His throne and a 
sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of His kingdom. 
" Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord." 

When Christendom repeats that phrase " Thy King- 
dom Come " in the universal prayer it means the down- 
fall of Islam, the overthrow of every throne of iniquity, 
and of all kingdoms whose foundations are laid in blood. 

The kingdom of Christ is a kingdom of righteous- 
ness and between it and the cruel, lustful barbarism of 
Islam there can be no peace. It affords an outlet for 
one's outraged feelings as the cries of smitten Armenia 
fill our ears, to read the woes once denounced by the 
prophets of Jehovah against the gigantic wickedness of 
empires founded in blood. 

The cry of the bittern is heard in the pools of Chal- 
dea, and the howling of jackals amid the ruins of Nine- 



472 AMERICA'S DUTY AND PRIVILEGE. 

veh. The lions roam among the deserted palaces of 
Babylon and it shall be desolate forever. 

When the judgments of the Lord are visited upon 
the earth the nations will learn righteousness. The ul- 
timate issue can not be doubtful, but still the cry is, 
" How long, O Lord ? How long ? " 

There are three kingdoms which are chiefly con- 
cerned in this Eastern question : — Turkey, England 
and Russia ; and while they are debating and manoeuv- 
ring, poor Armenia is being ground between the upper 
and nether millstones of their mutual jealousies and 
ambitions and the coming of the Kingdom of Righteous- 
ness is delayed. 

These three nations have stood facing each other for 
more than a century. Russia on the one side resisting 
the invasions, conquests and atrocities of the Turk, 
England on the other his right hand of strength in 
time of pressure. Throughout the entire history of the 
Tartar invasions with all their bloody victories and 
cruel conquests you see Russia rising again and again 
across his path like a stone wall. But England, in 
spite of all professions to the contrary and in spite of 
the earnest and solemn protests of her people against 
the atrocities of the Sultan's reign — and never more 
hot or indignant words have been uttered throughout 
England than during the last few months — England 
has always stepped in just in time to save the Empire 
from destruction and prolong its barbarous rule. 

Is it not written large on the page of history that in 
1798, when Napoleon invaded Egypt, England came to 
the rescue and fought France to save the Turk? In 
1853, it joined France and fought Russia, when the 
Czar attempted to protect the Greek Christians in Tur- 



America's duty and privilege. 473 

key : and by the treaty of Paris restored to the Sultan 
the command of the Lower Danube, shut out the Czar 
from his protectorate over the Danubian provinces and 
closed the Black Sea against all ships of war. Worst 
of all the treaty adopted the Porte into the family of 
European nations. Mr. James Boyce, in a Century ar- 
ticle on the Armenian question, says: " The other na- 
tions of Europe now treat the Turks as if they were a 
civilized state and even talk of respecting their suscep- 
tibilities." But they have no title to be so treated and 
ought never to have been admitted into the rank of 
civilized nations. Mr. Freeman describes them as 
"merely a band of robbers encamped in a country 
whose inhabitants they despoil." And the passionate 
words of Edmund Burke are quoted as he exclaimed, 
" What have these worse than savages to do with the 
Powers of Europe but to spread destruction and pesti- 
lence among them. The ministers and the policy which 
shall give these people any weight in Europe will de- 
serve all the bans and curses of posterity." 

Brave and noble words, but this is just what England 
forced on Russia and Europe by the treaty of Paris. 
And again at the close of the Russo-Turkish war, when 
the Porte was pleading for life and had gladly accepted 
the San Stefano treaty, the wily Beaconsfield and the 
present Premier stepped in and, by the Berlin treaty, 
handed back to the tender mercies of the Turk more 
than forty thousand square miles of territory and three 
million Bulgarian Christians. But what do we see in 
1895 ? England afraid in the critical moment to send 
her despatch boat through the Dardanelles to insist that 
the promised reforms in Armenia should be executed 
and that the massacres of Christians should be stopped. 



474 America's dVtY ahd ^hivilege. 

Yet for this purpose had she secured the cession of the 
island of Cyprus. 

By declining at the last moment to give her consent 
to the forcing of the Dardanelles, Russia most shrewdly 
outwitted England and humiliated her before the 
world. England lost her prestige and the glory of her 
power was tarnished when she failed, through fear of 
Russia, to execute what before the world she had 
pledged herself to do. 

We are not called upon to defend Russia's internal pol- 
icy — her argus-eyed espionage, the cruelties attending 
the exiling of criminals to Siberia and deporting many 
suspects without even a form of trial. But when 
Russia is called semi-civilized, or half-barbarous, and is 
scarcely allowed to rank among the Christian nations 
of Europe — we merely remark that she has no opium 
war laid to her charge, she never blew mutinous sepoys 
from the mouths of shotted guns. She has never taken 
possession of any Turkish territory under pretext of re- 
forming the internal administration of the Sublime 
Porte. If now, by shrewd diplomacy, the Czar rules 
at Constantinople, while the Sultan reigns but is in re- 
ality only his vassal, there is a decided checkmate on 
the political chessboard of European politics since the 
last move at Berlin. 

If it be true then the Bosphorus is free to Russia, 
and the Czar is at liberty to march Russian troops at 
any time into Armenia. Indeed the rumor was that 
the excessive massacres ceased immediately when the 
Czar said " enough." 

England was brought into this humiliating situation 
by her own hesitation to do the right when all Europe 
except Russia was a unit with her in insisting that the 



America's duty and privilege. 477 

Sultan must be brought to terms even if they should be 
obliged to force the Dardanelles. 

It is remembered that Mr. Terrell openly expressed 
the opinion that if European pressure for reforms re- 
pulsive to the Turk, which were to admit to the army 
a subject race should be successful, a general massacre 
was sure to result unless concerted and armed coopera- 
tion among the P.owers prevented it. There was no 
such cooperation, and accordingly on the very day that 
these reforms were announced, Mr. Terrell demanded 
immediate military protection for all missionaries, say- 
ing that if a single hair on the head of one of our mis- 
sionaries was injured the Sultan must answer for it: and 
the protection was granted. 

On December 19, 1895, the President transmitted to 
Congress a communication from Secretary Olney on 
the Armenian outrages, in response to the resolution 
of the Senate. Secretary Olney stated that the num- 
ber of citizens of the United States resident in the 
Turkish Empire is not accurately known, but there are 
one hundred and seventy-two American missionaries 
and dependents scattered over Asia Minor. There are 
also a number of American citizens engaged in busi- 
ness in the Turkish dominions, and others originally 
Turkish subjects, but now naturalized citizens of the 
United States. 

The bulk of this American element is to be found re- 
mote from our few Consular establishments. He bore 
testimony to the energy and promptness displayed by 
our Minister, Mr. Terrell, in taking measures for their 
protection which had received the moral support of 
naval vessels of the United States. He added that while 



478 America's duty and privilege. 

the physical safety of the United States citizens seemed 
to be assured, their property had been destroyed at 
Harpoot and Marash, in the former case to the extent 
of $100,000. 

The Turkish Government had been notified that it 
would " be held responsible for the immediate and full 
satisfaction of all injuries on that score." The loss of 
American property at Marash had not been ascertained, 
but a like demand for adequate indemnity would be 
made as soon as the facts were known. 

Of the incidents contained in the correspondence in 
which the rights and power of the United States to 
demand protection for its citizens whether missionaries 
from this country or naturalized Armenians returning 
to their native country, one is given that it may be seen 
that the demands of our Government for justice will 
always be met when backed by a warship. 

THE CASE OF DR. CHRISTIE. 

" On the night of the 4th of August last the premises 
of Dr. Christie, principal of St. Paul's Institute, at 
Tarsus, who was spending the summer months at the 
neighboring village of Namroun, were invaded by an 
armed mob, obviously collected in pursuance of a pre- 
concerted plan, and an outrageous attack made on a 
defenceless native servant of Dr. Christie and some 
students of the institute who were then at Namroun. 
The authors of this brutal attack were abundantly iden- 
tified, and through the prompt intervention of the 
United States Consul at Beirut and the Consular agent 
at Mersine — the nearest port — a number of arrests were 
made. Notwithstanding the peremptory demands of 



America's duty and privilege. 479 

the United States Minister for simple justice the assail- 
ants, when taken before the local Judge of Tarsus, 
were released. 

" So grave did this miscarriage of justice appear that 
an early occasion was taken to send the ' Marblehead ' to 
Mersine to investigate the incident and lend all proper 
moral aid to Consular representatives of the United 
States in pressing for due redress. Their efforts to this 
end were most cordially seconded by the Mutessarif 
(Prefect) of Mersine and on October 28 last the ac- 
cused, to the number of eight, were brought to trial at 
Tarsus, and convicted upon the evidence, subsequently 
confessing their guilt. 

" Having established his rights, and in view of the 
dismissal of the Tarsus Judge who had conducted the 
preliminary inquest, and a promise to degrade the in- 
competent Mudir of Namroun, Dr. Christie interceded 
with the Court for clemency to the individual culprits, 
upon whom light sentences of imprisonment were 
passed. The signal rebuke administered in high places 
where responsibility really existed and was abused, 
coupled with the establishment of the important prin- 
ciple that American domicile in Turkey may not be 
violated with impunity, renders the conclusion of this 
incident satisfactor} 7 ." 

The correspondence closed with the statement by 
Secretary Olney that a- telegram just received from 
Minister Terrell, under date of the 16th, expressed the 
gravest apprehensions concerning the ultimate fate of 
American citizens in the disturbed region unless the 
appalling massacres can be stopped by the united 
efforts of the Christian Powers. He saw no hope, 
however, of a European concert to that end. He said 



480 America's duty and privilege. 

that if the missionaries wished to leave Turkey he 
could procure their transportation to Christian ports; 
if the men wished to remain he could get escorts for all 
to the seacoast, whereupon the men could return ; but 
he added that the women and children should quit 
Turkey. 

HEROISM OF MISSIONARIES. 

The missionaries of the American Board throughout 
Anatolia declined to follow the advice of minister Ter- 
rell and seek a place of safety, feeling it to be their 
duty to care for the property of the Boards to preserve 
the schools from being scattered and destroyed, and by 
their presence restrain the impulses of fanatical Mos- 
lems and make safer the conditions of native Christians. 
" If we fall martyrs to our desire to prevent horrible 
massacres so be it. God has plenty of workers to take 
our places." 

Nobly did they stand in their places protecting lives 
and property as far as possible. 

At Oorfa there were but two lady teachers Miss 
Shattuck and Miss Mellinger. They were four clays' 
journey from any other American missionaries. But 
when the massacre began they threw open the mission 
premises and through all that reign of horror they pre- 
served two hundred and forty-six women and children 
from assault and death. 

More than three thousand men, women and children, 
who had fled to the Armenian church suffered most 
horrible cruelties before the church was set on fire : 
most of them were burned alive. Some sixty or a hun- 
dred escaped by secret stairs. This large stone church, 
now purified, is used as a hospital for some eight hun- 



America's duty and privilege. 481 

dred Armenians and these two women have sole care of 
them. What heroism ! 

But more than that the Sublime Porte had learned 
the temper of our government and knew that damages 
would have to be paid for all mission property de- 
stroyed, hence the Governor of the city sent a 
double guard of soldiers to protect the premises from 
fire or assault. The mob was never so desperate as not 
to realize that they must obey orders. This fact makes 
the responsibility of the Powers the more fearful as 
the pressure of an ultimatum at Constantinople backed 
by a war fleet would have been instantly felt to the ex- 
tremity of the remotest vilayet. 

At Harpoot the bullets fell thick around the mission- 
aries, but they were divinely protected, and saved the 
lives of many of their scholars ; at Marash, the lady mis- 
sionaries stood bravely in front of their students in the 
college, ready to die, if the call came; but they were 
unharmed. " I thought our time had come," wrote one 
worthy missionary, afterward-, and he added, "and if 
we were to lay down our lives there, we felt that 
Ave would not have chosen it otherwise." But they 
were preserved for still further duty in the Lord's 
vineyard, and it is largely due to their humane efforts 
to-day that any relief work is being done in Armenia 
at all. 

Not one of the American missionaries deserted his 
post, not even one of the women missionaries. Never 
has there been a time in the history of Turkey when ;: 
brave and faithful missionary counted for so much, 
and never has the power of the United States counted 
for as much. 

The presence of these Christian men and women has 
27 



482 America's duty and privilege. 

been a comfort and protection to thousands of those 
afflicted, frightened and smitten people. Many a mar- 
tyr has been strengthened to bear the awful agonies of 
torture by their devotion in the midst of most terrible 
scenes. Alone has some noble American women 
dragged from the hands of a mob a young girl scream- 
ing for life. Mr. Wingate and Miss Burrage were alone 
in the city of Csesarea on that fearful 30th of Novem- 
ber and nobly did they defend the persecuted, saving 
many lives. Mr. Wingate took a policeman, went to a 
Turkish house and demanded a bride and a daughter, 
who had been carried off and got them both. The 
people in all that region are ready to kiss his feet. 

But time would fail to tell you of the noble deeds 
wrought by brave, devoted women at Sivas, Hadjin, 
Adana, Oorfa and among the villages of Mesopotamia. 
Only the recording angels at the last day can fully recite 
their deeds of heroism. At the great crisis in their 
life's work, nobly, did they fulfill their highest, holiest 
duty. 

DUTY OP THE POWERS. 

Action of the United States Senate — a protest 
against European apathy in not compelling Turkey to 
observe the Berlin Treaty : 

On January 22, 1896, Mr. Cullom, from the Senate 
committee on foreign relations, reported a resolution 
in the Senate relative to the Armenian troubles. It 
recited the provision of the treaty of Berlin as to re- 
ligious freedom and resolved that it is the imperative 
duty of the United States to express the hope that the 
European powers will bring about the carrying out of 



America's duty and privilege. 483 

the treaty, and requested the President to transmit this 
resolution to the Powers. 

CULLOM'S ARMENIAN RESOLUTION. 

Mr. Cullom (Rep., 111.) reported from the Senate 
committee on foreign relations the following Armenian 
resolution : 

" Whereas, The supplementary treaty of Berlin of 
July 13, 1878, between the Ottoman Empire and Great 
Britain, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, and Russia 
contains the following provisions: 

" ' LXI.— The Sublime Porte undertakes to carry 
out without further delay the ameliorations and reforms 
demanded by local requirements in the provinces in- 
habited by the Armenians and to guarantee their 
security against the Circassians and Kurds. It will 
periodically make known the steps taken to this effect, 
to the powers, and will superintend their application.' 

" ' LXII. — The Sublime Porte having expressed the 
wish to maintain the principle of religious liberty, to 
give it the widest scope, the contracting parties take 
note of this spontaneous declaration. In no part of 
the Ottoman Empire shall difference of religion be 
alleged against an individual as a ground for exclusion 
or incapacity as regards the discharge of civil and 
political rights, admission to the police service, func- 
tions and honors, and the exercise of the different pro- 
fessions and industries. All persons shall be admitted 
without distinction of religion to give evidence before 
the tribunals. Liberty and outward exercise of all 
forms of worship are assured to all, and no hindrance 
shall be offered either to hierarchial organization of the 
various communions or to their relations with their 



484 America's duty and privilege. 

spiritual chiefs. The right of official protection by the 
diplomatic and consular agents of the powers in Turkey 
is recognized both as regards the above mentioned per- 
sons and their religious, charitable, and other estab- 
lishments in the holy places ; ' and, 

" Whereas, The extent and object of the above cited 
provisions of said treaty are to place the Christian sub- 
jects of the Porte under the protection of the other 
signatories thereto, and to secure to such Christian 
subjects full liberty of religious worship and belief, the 
equal benefit of the laws, and all the privileges and 
immunities belonging to any subject of the Turkish 
empire ; and, 

" Whereas, By said treaty the Christian powers 
parties thereto, having established under the consent 
of Turkey their right to accomplish and secure the 
above recited objects; and, 

" Whereas, The American people, in common with 
all Christian people everywhere, have beheld with hor- 
ror the recent appalling outrages and massacres of 
which the Christian population of Turkey have been 
made the victims, 

" Resolved, by the Senate of the United States, the 
House of Representatives concurring, That it is an 
imperative duty in the interests of humanity to express 
the earnest hope that the European concert brought 
about by the treaty referred to may speedily be given 
its just effects in such decisive measures as shall stay 
the hand of fanaticism and lawless violence and as 
shall secure to the unoffending Christians of the Turk- 
ish Empire all the rights belonging to them, both as 
men and as Christians and as beneficiaries of the ex- 
plicit provisions of the treaty above recited. 



America's duty and privilege. 485 

"Resolved, That the President be requested to com- 
municate these resolutions to the governments of Great 
Britain, Germany, Austria, France, Italy,, and Russia. 

" Resolved, further, That the Senate of the United 
States, the House of Representatives concurring, will 
support the President in the most vigorous action he 
may take for the protection and security of American 
citizens in Turkey, and to obtain redress for injuries 
committed on the persons or property of such citizens." 

Mr. Cullom said the resolution was reported by the 
unanimous vote of the committee, and he desired im- 
mediate action. 

Mr. Gray (Dem., Del.) said he did not anticipate 
any objection to the resolution, but it was of such im- 
portance that there should be time for consideration of 
the terms of the resolution. 

Mr. Cullom acceded to this suggestion, giving notice 
that he would ask for action to-morrow. 

On the 2J:th, the resolutions were brought up and 
Senator Cullom took the floor and spoke of the serious 
conditions prevailing in Turkey. He said that he was 
appalled by the carnival of blood prevailing. A mas- 
sacre of innocence, unparalleled for ages, had been per- 
petrated. The evidence of the bloody enormities was 
given by all classes and nationalities until it was be- 
yond the slightest doubt. A Turkish army had bay- 
onetted, robbed, murdered and flayed alive the people 
of Armenia. There was no war, but a pitiless, merci- 
less tornado of ruin, bloodshed and death. The demon 
of fanaticism had been let loose. There was a respon- 
sibility somewhere. It did not rest with the slavish 
ruler of Turkey, the Sultan. Back of this were the 
disputes of the countries of the European alliance, 



486 America's duty and privilege. 

seeking their territorial advantages. These countries 
were responsible. The Sultan was but a puppet in 
their hands. . It was a matter of regret and embarrass- 
ment, continued Mr. Cullom, that the policy of the 
United States was such as to prevent the sending of a 
fleet to Turkish waters to put a stop to the bloody rule 
prevailing. But Europe had assumed the obligation 
of protection to Armenia. The people of the United 
States were intensely interested in seeing the obliga- 
tion executed and the purpose of these resolutions was 
to plead with the greatest earnestness for the protec- 
tion of Armenia. It was amazing to people of the 
United States to witness this appalling slaughter and 
at the same time to see the indifference of the Chris- 
tian powers. There was a double obligation upon En- 
gland and yet nothing had been done to stay the hand 
of the Sultan, except by fruitless diplomatic corres- 
pondence. No event of the centuries called so loudly 
to the civilized world as this slaughter in Turkey, the 
greatest, the Senator believed, in the history of the 
world . 

Then Senator Frye, of Maine, arose and addressing 
the chair began an address that electrified an audience 
which constantly grew until the galleries were crowded. 

In the midst of his speech with intensely dramatic 
earnestness and thrilling effect Senator Frye cried 
aloud : " I would gladly have this Congress send a 
memorial to Russia, saying, 'Take Armenia under 
your protection, and the United States will stand b}^ 
you with all its power and resources.' ' The words 
are strong but the manner and emphasis of the orator 
cannot be described. Every Senator upon the floor 
gave expression of approval. Many of them clapped 



America's duty and privilege. 487 

their hands. The people in the galleries broke forth in 
prolonged applause, which the voice of the Vice Presi- 
dent found difficulty in checking. 

The scene was one of the most dramatic ever wit- 
nessed in the Senate. Again and again Senator Frye 
gave expression to aggressive views of a similar char- 
acter, and from beginning to close of his address he re- 
ceived the closest attention and frequent applause. He 
declared that Great Britain is no friend of this country, 
nor of any country. Great Britain should have taken 
part in the suppression of the slaughters in Armenia, 
but she has not done so. The other countries of 
Europe are equally derelict. 

Mr. Frye declared the United States had never 
given its assent to the agreement of the European 
powers closing the Dardanelles, and proceeded with 
much vigor and earnestness to say that if necessary in 
order to protect American citizens he would order the 
American ships to sail up the Dardanelles, regardless 
of the European alliance, and when in front of Con- 
stantinople demand the protection of our people within 
the Sultan's dominions. The resolutions were adopted 
with great applause without a dissenting vote. 

The action of our government has been energetic 
and effective in preserving the lives of the American 
missionaries in Anatolia. It has been conclusively 
shown that the Sultan has a considerate regard to an 
emphatic demand when backed by a battleship. It is 
a serious question whether the time has not come for 
the United States to rise to the higher question of 
privilege, and demand in the name of common humanity 
that the massacres shall cease and the Christian popu- 
lations be protected according to the provisions of the 



488 America's duty and privilege. 

Berlin Treaty, and the former promises of the Sublime 
Porte, " that no one shall be compelled to change his 
religion." 

The latest reports from Constantinople asserted that 
there have been many thousands of forced conversions 
to Islam and that scores of Armenians who had ac- 
cepted Islam but did not live up to all its require- 
ments with sufficient zeal to please the Turks have 
been put to death since the wholesale massacres have 
ceased. 

How much longer can human nature stand the 
strain? What greater — greater outrages can be con- 
ceived of to rouse the Christian conscience, than have 
filled our ears for months ? It was published in London 
as very important news that Sir Philip Currie was the 
first Ambassador invited this year to take "iftar" at 
the Palace. The audience lasted half an hour and was 
very cordial. " It is understood that the Sultan re- 
newed his assurances regarding the execution of re- 
forms." Thereupon the English Government washes 
its hands in Pilate's basin and rids itself of all respon- 
sibility. 

If we haven't any treaty rights in this matter in 
God's name let us assert the higher law of human 
rights — the right of every man to life, liberty and the 
pursuit of happiness. Let us declare through Congress 
our judgment to the Porte that the hour has come for 
armed interference in the cause of outraged humanity. 

Mr. Chauncey M. Depew having been invited to de- 
liver an address in Detroit, Mich., in the interest of 
Armenia, not being able to attend, wrote a letter to 
Gen. Alger, the chairman of the meeting, from which 
we quote as follows : 



America's duty and privilege. 489 

" The air is full just now of wars and rumors of wars. 
The fighting blood of all the peoples of all civilized 
countries seems to be warmed to the battle point. But, 
while there is a great and dangerous excitement over a 
boundary line in Venezuela and a filibustering expedi- 
tion in South Africa, the peoples of Europe and of the 
United States remain unmoved and undisturbed by the 
burnings, sackings, slaughter and every form of savage 
murder and lust perpetrated upon the Christians of 
Armenia simply because of their adherence to the faith 
of Christendom. I have seen congregations weep at 
the presentation of the tortures and massacres of Chris- 
tian martyrs under Nero and Diocletian two thousand 
years ago. Where are the tears for Christian men tor- 
tured and killed, Christian women outraged and slain, 
Christian children tossed upon the bayonets of a savage 
soldiery yesterday, last week and last month, with the 
frightful assurance that they will continue to be 
slaughtered and outraged and tortured and tossed upon 
bayonets to-morrow, the day after and next month and 
for months to come ? 

" Much as I believe in peace and its blessings, much 
as I detest war and its horrors, much as I feel that 
great provocations and the most imminent dangers 1o 
the liberty or the existence of the territories or the 
safety of the citizens of the country will justify an ap- 
peal to the arbitrament of arms, nevertheless I do feel 
that by a concert of action of Christian nations, of 
which the United States should be one, such a presen- 
tation, should be made to the Sultan and his advisers as 
would stop these horrors and save our Christian 
brethren." 

The case of Rev. Mr. Knapp, of Bitlis, who is to be 



490 America's duty and privilege. 

sent to Constantinople for trial on the charge of sedi- 
tion, will afford a splendid occasion for a naval display. 
Let the question be opened up whether these treaty 
obligations of the Porte mean anything outside the 
reach of a warship. How can we maintain our tradi- 
tions as the friend of the oppressed and downtrodden 
of earth if we let the brutal fanatical Sultan riot still 
in plunder, lust and blood ? 

Did we care for the poor manacled negro undergoing 
the horrors of the Middle Passage ? Did we have any 
interest in healing " the open sore of the world ? " 
Did we once have spirit enough to demand of the Bey 
of Algiers the release of all Christian slaves, the 
abandonment of the piracy he had practiced for years, 
and compel him to forego the tribute exacted from all 
nations ? 

And have we no voice, no heart, no sympathy, no 
power to demand that the Sultan shall stop his awful 
carnage of blood and prove before the bar of all Chris- 
tendom by what right he any longer shall reign ? 

We can do this because the Eastern Question does 
not exist for us. Higher questions of humanity de- 
mand the first consideration. We can interfere in de- 
fence of the lives and property of Christians in Turkey 
without violating the Monroe Doctrine and would 
merit the gratitude of Europe and the world, if the 
final decision should be that the Sultan had forfeited 
by the slaughter of one hundred thousand men, women 
and children with the fiendish accompaniments of out- 
rage, violation, torture, all right to be treated as any- 
thing else than an enemy of humanity, and a wild beast 
to be caged and gazed upon with execration and horror. 

Are not the lives and happiness of a half million 



America's duty and privilege. 491 

Armenians left homeless and penniless and who still 
tremble with fear and terror at the sight of their re- 
lentless foes of more consequence than the boundary 
line of Venezuela ? And yet for the location of an im- 
aginary line the President's message came perilously 
near being a threat'of war. 

Had the President written as strong a message as that 
to the Sultan in November or December, 1895, and sent 
it with an escort of three battleships under the Stars 
and Stripes (stars for heroes, stripes for tyrants) de- 
manding that the massacres cease at once or Yildiz 
Palace would be bombarded, the telegraph wires might 
have melted under the hot haste with which every 
Governor had been ordered to call off the hounds of 
hell from their battening on human blood. (I beg 
pardon of the hounds, hyenas, tigers and all other wild 
beasts for using their names in simile or metaphor to 
describe the swiftness, eagerness or ferocity of Kurd or 
Turk. It is only the poverty of language that makes 
such use allowable.) 

But there is another thing we can do and England 
has shown us how to do it, scores of times, if not hun- 
dreds of times, in her own history. The American 
Board has suffered the loss of hundreds of thousands 
of dollars in the destruction of missionary property ; 
American citizens have suffered great money losses and 
their work has been broken up in many quarters ; many 
churches in all parts of Anatolia, built wholly or in 
part with contributions from America, have been laid 
in ruins ; they have gone down in ashes and pillage 
under the trampling hordes of Islam ; the cost of relief 
has been enormous and the extra cost to all the mis- 
sionaries has been very great, to say nothing of all the 



492 America's duty and privilege. 

indignities to which they have been subjected (and in 
British estimation outrage upon the dignity of an 
Englishman is placed at very high figures.) Now let 
these damages be tabulated at full value and the bill 
presented to the Sublime Porte payable on demand and 
let us land a few marines at Staniboul and open out a 
few port holes upon the Palace and wake Mr. Sultan to 
the fact that it is quite as serious an affair to pluck the 
feathers of the American eagle as it is to twist the tail 
of the British lion. 

As Mr. Talmage has said in his own inimitable style: 
" When the English lion and the Russian bear put 
their paws on that Turkey, the American eagle ought 
to put in its bill.' 

Seriously this demand ought to be made with such 
energy, decision and despatch with such a demand for 
adequate protection and guarantee of inviolability of 
domicile both as to churches, colleges, schools and 
private residences of missionaries with a demand for 
necessary papers for all the consuls we ma}^ choose to 
send into Anatolia, that the Sultan would have very 
little time for the next few weeks to talk to his three 
hundred and sixty-five wives, or lay out any new plans 
for reforming the Armenians out of existence. 

Another thing is possible, and possible only to 
America, viz : The calling of an International Con- 
ference — say on the Island of Cyprus, which England 
holds as a pledge that she will see that necessary re- 
forms shall be executed — to discuss the further ex- 
istence of the power of the Porte. 

After the battle of Waterloo the Powers of Europe 
dealt with Napoleon as an enemy of the human race, 
of the peace and prosperity of every realm and uot 



America's duty and privilege. 493 

liking to take him off suddenly, they took him off to the 
island of St. Helena, where English ships and soldiers 
guarded him from all danger till the angel of death, 
black or white, called him before a higher tribunal. 

There would be some grim justice in the retribution 
if the Sultan should be exiled to the island of Cyprus 
where he could be supported without cost to Europe 
according to Article III. of the Annex to the Cyprus 
Convention. It is understood " that England will pay 
to the Porte whatever is the present excess of revenue 
over expenditure in the island." 

One gunboat could guard the island, and Abdul- 
Hamid II., after whom there should be no III., could 
dwell in peaceful security, unless through his seared 
Islamic conscience some dreams of blood should come, 
or shrieks of outraged womanhood be heard above the 
waves of the resounding sea. 

It has been said that if the contents of the Blue Book 
on Armenia were known Lord Salisbury would be 
mobbed in the streets of London. The Christian Herald, 
of New York, has also stated that a number of official 
documents has come into its possession which form 
such an indictment against, the Turk as has never yet 
been framed in the Saxon tongue. "It may never be 
necessary to drag this shameful exhibit to the light, nor 
will it ever be done save as a last resort in the interest 
of justice and mercy." 

As nothing which has } 7 et been told has touched the 
springs of power in Europe or America, save to start a 
few rills of generosity for pity's sake and a few tears 
which a dainty lace handkerchief could wipe away, it 
would seem as if justice to the Turk and mercy to the 
Armenians demanded that these official documents. 



494 America's duty and privilege. 

whether in England or America, should be given to the 
light, if perchance at last the nations of Christendom 
might be roused to action before the country shall be 
utterly laid waste and the only service left us shall be 
to lay a cross upon the grave of Bleeding Armenia. 

Armenia has stood the only Christian race and nation 
in Asia, for more than a thousand years, despite the oft 
repeated threat, Islam or Death. At any hour, in any 
age its glorious roll of martyrs would have been filled 
up and its blood would have ceased to flow, if it had 
been willing to deny the Christ and swear allegiance to 
the false Prophet. 

The History of this Martyr Nation that has been 
written in tears and blood as thus rehearsed to you will, 
I trust, not have been told in vain. Ma}*- the voice of 
an outraged humanity be heard above the din of all 
conflicting political alliances demanding mercy and 
justice for the perishing. 

I believe our indignation would burst into fiercest 
flame if these awful atrocities could but be realized ; 
and to noble, free and Christian America might be the 
honor of leading in a glorious crusade for the deliver- 
ance of crushed, desolated, and bleeding Armenia from 
the accursed rule of Islam. 



THE END. 



APPENDIX. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Massacre of Armenians by Police, Sottas and Kurds.— Frontis- 
piece. Sept. 30th, 1895, and the following days will long be remem- 
bered as a Reign of Terror in Constantinople. Scarcely an 
Armenian family but mourns the loss of some of its members. 
The Mahommedans seemed worked to such a pitch of fury, that 
mere death was too mild a punishment to inflict on their victims. 

They battered the heads of the Armenians with bludgeons, mutil- 
ated the unhappy creatures in every possible way, and left them 
lying about the streets in ghastly heaps. Many lived thus for hours 
in horrible agonies, no one daring to succor them. 

Great and Little Ararat from the North-east.— Page 19. The vil- 
lage of Aralykh, from which the view of the mountain is taken, is 
merely a row of wooden barracks, neatly painted, with a smith's 
and carpenter's shop, cottages for the soldiers scattered about it» 
and a few trees for shade and shelter. 

The situation is striking. The mountain seems quite close, but 
in reality its true base is fully twelve miles distant. As you look 
up into the great black chasm you can see the cornice of ice, 300 
or 400 feet in thickness, lying at a height of about 14,000 feet, and 
above it a steep slope of snow, pierced here and there by rocks, run- 
ning up to the summit. 

About seven miles to the south from Great Mountain, rises the 
singularly elegant peak of Little Ararat, which in the autumn is 
ree from snow. 

Armenian Types and Costumes.— Page 38. The costumes of the 
better class of Armenian women, before these terrible days, were 
very picturesque and some quite costly. 

They are fond of personal adornment, and wear silver coins 

495 



496 APPENDIX. 

about the head and neck; sometimes the ornaments are of gold, 
very handsome and expensive. The costume of the men 
varies considerably according to the province and occupation. 
Many of the merchant class have adopted the European dress 
almost entirely. 

Monastic Rock-Chambers at Gueremeh.— Page 55. The moun- 
tains in this neighborhood of Kaiserieh are remarkable for the 
numerous rock-chambers and caves, which were filled with hermits 
in the early days of Christianity. 

In one valley, about one mile in length and one thousand feet 
across, a gorge opens out about five hundred feet deep. The cliffs 
fall steeply away, sometimes with a sheer decent ; sometimes in a 
succession of terraces, and from them rise up pyramids and pin- 
nacles of rock ; the wonders of the valley. On both the face of 
the cliffs, and in these detached masses there are caves and niches, 
all the work of human hands. At one time the whole valley was 
the abode of a vast monastic community. 

The Sultan in the Park of the Yildiz Palace— Page 74. The 

Sultan rises at six o'clock, and labors with clerks and secretaries 
until noon, when he breakfasts. Then he goes for a drive, or a row 
on the lake in the palace park, and returning gives audience until 
eight. At that hour he dines as a rule, alone. 

The Sultan's food is prepared by chosen persons, cooked in 
sealed vessels, within locked rooms, and tasted before it is served 
to him. The water he drinks is brought from a distance in sealed 
barrels. 

Sometimes the Sultan, who is fond of light operatic music, .plays 
duets on the piano with his younger children. For other recrea- 
tions, he studies odd machines and novelties of inventions. 

He never sleeps two successive nights in the same room, and 
when the fear of death is strongest upon him, he goes to a chamber 
reached by a ladder, which he draws up after him. 

Types Of Sottas.— Page 91. At Cairo, in Egypt, are the most 
famous universities of Islam. To these schools, students flock from 
all quarters of the Mahommedan world. 

These Softas are the most fanatical of the Moslems ; their entire 
training is one of bitter intolerance and hatred of Christianity ; they 
have been the inciters to riots in many cities in the Turkish Empire, 



APPENDIX. 497 

notably in that of Constantinople, in September, 1895. The num- 
ber of Softas in the Empire, is said to be about 30,000—8,000 of 
them being in Stamboul. 

His majesty has at times sought to have some of them return to 
their native provinces, but to this, great opposition has been shown, 
so that he was obliged to abandon his first plan and get rid of them 
quietly. From time to time numbers of them have been put on 
board of transports for unknown destinations. 

"The Turks are upon Us." A Panic in Stamboul.— Page 110. 
While the photograph, from which this illustration is reproduced, 
was taken in Stamboul, it would answer equally well for the panic 
that prevailed among Armenian merchants, everywhere, whenever 
the cry was raised that the feared and hated Turk was coming. 
Costly merchandise was quickly thrust behind doors, that were 
as quickly barred against the common foe, and children were 
hastily summoned from the streets. That such scenes have their 
ludicrous side, is evidenced by the upsetting of the young man 
who, in his haste to gain a place of safety, has trodden upon the 
trailing end of one of the rugs which the venerable dealer in such 
merchandise, is in equal haste to place beyond the reach of the 
marauders. 

The New Grand Vizier on his way to the Sublime Porte.— Page 
127. The renowned office of grand, vizier, in the realms of the 
Ottoman Turk, is a very precarious and dangerous post. Rifaat 
Pasha, the latest appointee, is the nominal head of whatever gov- 
ernment may be supposed to exist at the Porte. He has been 
many years in the civil service, and has been Governor, successivly, 
of the former Danubian Provinces, of Salonica, of Smyrna, and of 
Monastir, and latterly Minister of the Interior. 

Explaining the Inflammatory Placards.— Page 146. There is a cry 
for reform in the system of government in Turkey, and revolu- 
tionary placards are posted up almost daily in the streets of Stam- 
boul. The police specially patrol the streets at night with the 
object of tearing down these seditious utterances. The illustration 
shows a man of education, explaining to some of his more ignorant 
fellow-citizens, the meaning of one of these placards, that has 
escaped the notice of the police. 

Taking Armenian Prisoners to the Grand Zaptieh Prison.— Page 
163. Over the portal of the Grand Zaptieh Prison, Stamboul, 
ttuefct well ha inseribed "All hone abandon, ye who enter here." 



498 APPENDIX. 

The engraving gives a forcible illustration of the brutality ex- 
hibited by the Turkish soldiers and police towards their prisoners, 
whom, in many instances, they literally dragged to their place of 
confinement. 

British Cabinet Debating the Armenian Question. — Page 182. 
The councils of the English Government are more important to 
the welfare of the world than the decision of any other European 
power. But British interests — interest on Turkish bonds held in 
London — have been paramount to all questions of righteousness and 
humanity ; and Bleeding Armenia cries in vain for deliverance 
from the accursed rule of the Turk. 

The British Mediterranean Fleet. — Page 199. When the squadrons 
of the great powers began to assemble in Eastern waters, it seemed 
for awhile as if the day of reckoning for Turkey had surely come- 
The British fleet is seen in the harbor of Salonica, ready for action. 
At this time the French ironclads were in the Piraeus, the German 
warships off Smyrna, the Italian and Austro-Hungarian squadrons 
had started for the East, and Russia's fleet was close at hand in the 
Black Sea, A single warship in front of Constantinople would 
have restored order in Armenia ; none were sent. 

Types and Costumes of Kurdish Gentlemen.— Page 218. The 
Kurdish costumes are picturesque and nearly all the tribesmen are 
magnificent horsemen. They are always formidably armed. They 
are very cruel ; fierce in battle ; merciless in torture and outrage 
of their victims. They have neithers books nor schools ; not one in 
ten thousand can read. 

A Common Scene in the Streets of Erzeroum.— Page 235. A 
camel caravan from Persia passing through to Trebizond. Some of 
these caravans consist of as many as eight hundred camels— esti- 
mating the value of a camel at $150, which is moderate, we have 
the sum of $120,000 as the worth of the caravan, without counting 
the vast stores of merchandise. This immense trade is for the time 
destroyed and the inhabitants of Erzeroum reduced to great ex- 
tremities. 

Armenian Women Weaving Turkish Carpets.— Page 254. In the 
reign of Edward VI. we read that before communion-tables were 
placed, • ' Carpets full gay, that wrought were in the Orient." The 
create? nart of the real Turkey carpets are manufaetur^tl in tha 



APPENDIX. 499 

province of Aidin. No large manufactory exists ; the carpets are 
the work of families and households. The illustration shows 
Armenian women engaged at their primitive looms. 

Armenian Peasants Fleeing to Russia. - Page 271. Fortunate 
indeed is the family that could escape into Russia and save their 
lives. Yet, across the borders there is no peace and prosperity. 
Thousands are on the mountains, or out on the plains escaping 
from the sword and bayonet and spear of the Turk and Kurd. 
Their misery, as they wander in rags, or creep about the ruins of 
their villages, is appalling. 

Armenian Women, Province of Van.— Page 290. Besides trade 
and agriculture, the inhabitants of this province are engaged in a 
few industries, such as the making of coarse cotton chintz, a 
highly prized water-proof fabric of goat hair and a thick woolen cloth 
called shayah. The women assist in all the labors of the men, par- 
ticularly in the field, where entire families may be seen. 

Armenian Mountaineer of Shadokh.— Page 307. This illustration 
gives a good idea of the sturdy manliness of these people, who, if 
permitted to bear arms and defend themselves, would soon deliver 
their villages from plunder, and their wives and children from out- 
rage and misery. 

Grand Mosque and Interior at Urfah.— Page 324. Urfah is the 
present name for Edessa, once the capital of Armenia — the Ur of 
the Chaldees. 

There was a Christian church at Edessa as early as 200 A. D., and 
it was famous for its schools of learning, which were large and 
flourishing. A great tower is still standing, from which, five times 
a-day, the Muezzin calls Mahommedans to prayer, marks the site 
of the great Christian seminary of the fourth century. 

The Turks pay thousands of dollars to the mosque for the privi- 
lege of being buried in this place. 

Passage Boat on the Arras.— Page 343. Ferriage and transpor- 
tation by water in Asia Minor is still carried on in primitive fashion. 
The illustration shows an unwieldly craft, propelled by long and 
heavy oars. The usual shape of the boats is much like that of a 
coffin. The submerged portion is coated within and without with 
hot bitumen. Frequently, when the craft arrives at her destina- 
tion, she is broken up, and the bitumen, with which she is coated, 
is sold, as well as the cargo. 



500 APPENDIX. 

Arresting the Murderers of Armenians.— Page 362. These arrests 
have only been a matter of form, and only because some foreign 
consuls may have demanded it. 

Turkish justice, outside the centers of European influence, rarely 
ever punishes either Kurd or Turk for outrage, plunder or mur- 
der, if only the Armenians are the sufferers. 

Sketches of Armenia and Kurdestan.— Page 379. Agroupofviews 
showing the interior of a Kurdish tent, in which three chiefs are par- 
taking of coffee; a soldier, in picturesque dress, standing on guard, 
or, to salute his superior officer; a valley of surpassing beauty, with 
snow-capped mountains in the distance ; a Kurdish encampment, 
with houses in the background, and a view of Sinna, the capital of 
Persian-Kurdestan. 

Refugees and Cavasses at an Armenian Church.— Page 398. After 
the first riots in Constantinople, the various Armenian churches 
were filled with refugees who could hardly be persuaded to leave 
their sanctuary. After repeated assurances of protection by the 
dragomans of the six European embassies, the refugees returned to 
their homes. As they left each church, they were drawn up in line 
and searched for arms. 

A Prayer for Revenge. — Page 415. The heart-rending agonies of 
the martyr have died out, and his soul has gone up in anguish 
before the throne The aged father and brother have been favored 
in being able to secure the body for burial. But how can they pray ? 
The Turkish soldiers cried out as they tortured the dying man, 
"Where is your God, now? Why doesn't he deliver you?" and 
filled his ears with awful blasphemies in his last moments. 

Massacre of Armenians at Erzeroum.— Page 434. The massacre 
at Erzeroum began October 30, 1895, in the Serai, the chief govern- 
ment building in which the Vali and his chief officials reside. The 
massacre started by the shooting of the priest of Tevrick by Turk- 
ish soldiers when he and other Armenians were at the Serai trying 
to gain audience of the Vali. 

Burying the Bodies after the Massacre at Erzeroum.— Page 451. 
This illustration was reproduced from a photograph taken in the 
Armenian cemetery, two days after the massacre. Two rows of 
dead, thirty-five deep, had already been laid down and partially 
covered with earth by laborers, when the photograph was taken. 



APPENDIX. 501 

If our men had just deposited another corpse, and so started a third 
row. The open spaces between the bodies were filled up with skulls, 
thigh-bones, and other human remains disturbed by digging this 
grave, which was fifty-three feet square, for the reception of the 
slaughtered Armenians. 

A Grim Corner of the Cemetery, Erzeroum.— Page 470. About 

1,000 Armenians were inhumanly butchered in the massacre of 
October 30, 1895. The illustration shows how their corpses were 
laid out in the cemetery, waiting until one large common grave 
could be dug for their reception. 

Principal Street and Bazaar of Erzeroum.— Page~480. Erzeroum 
is a town of great antiquity. In 1201, the time of its capture by the 
Seejuks, 140,000 of its inhabitants were said to have been lost. 
Recent estimates of the population are from 50,000 to 100,000, of 
which, probably, two-thirds are Armenians. The circular-towers, 
shown in the illustration, with their conical tops, add a certain 
picturesqueness to the view, and are popularly reputed to be the 
tombs of holy men who died in the fourteenth century. 

The Prison at Erzeroum.— Page 481. To describe the sufferings 
of a Turkish prison is impossible. It combines the stifling air of 
the Black-Hole of Calcutta, the stench of an open sewer, the poison 
of a yellow fever ward, the pangs of starvation , besides the horrors 
of the Inferno when Moslem criminals are shut in with Christian 
prisoners. 

" It is a living grave, a visible hell, a world without God." Men 
are suffering in nakedness and rags, and dying of hunger and dis- 
ease, but there is no one to pity. 

Trebizond.— Page 491. This city, the principal seaport for the 
Armenians, is on the southern coast of the Black sea, and has a 
population of about forty-five thousand. The old walls are now 
ruinous, but the engraving shows how formidable they must have 
been originally. Many Armenians were massacred at Trebizond in 
the autumn of 1895. 

Town and Citadel of Van.— Page 502. Van, the capital of the 
province of the same name, lies in an extremely fertile plain — one 
of the gardens of the East, Its low, flat-roofed houses are enclosed 
within a double line of walls and ditches on the three sides not 
protected by the rock which rises 300 feet sheer above the plain, 



~<s£L<x/£ 



502 APPENDIX. 

and is crowned by the citadel. In this rock are numerous galleries 
and crypts which probably date back to the ninth century. The 
city of Van is one mile from the shore of the lake to which it gives 
its name. 

Armenian Refugees at the Labor Bureau at Van.— Page 503. At 
this point Dr. Grace N. Kimball has, so far, been able to employ 
over 900, representing 4,500 souls, keeping them from starvation 
by her efforts. Thousands of famished, almost naked creatures 
have toiled barefoot to the city. Her factory has also been a school 
of honesty to those employed, and the work is a shining example of 
clean, upright, business methods and Yankee executive ability. 




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